An Efficient Encoding Mechanism for Digital Microfluidic-based DNA Data Storage Systems

Abstract Digital data production speeds up dramatically every day, and the need to store extensive data rises consequently. Many storage media are used today, but only a few are capable of the required features in terms of high density, data duration, storage lifetime, and reliability. DNA-based digital data storage systems are one of the new and feature-rich media to store a massive amount of data in a very tiny volume with a strange lifetime. However, building dense and straightforward DNA storage comes with some challenges. Using manual methods to transfer and mix liquids containing DNA molecules makes this storage more error-prone. Moreover, the encoding method of digital data into DNA molecules is very crucial. This paper proposes a novel method for automatic and controllable DNA strand manipulation using a customized Digital Microfluidic Biochip (DMFB) corresponding to the CAD algorithm. Then, we offer a new approach to encoding the digital data into DNA molecules that helps error detection and correction in DNA storage while it brings efficient encoding density. Experimental results show that we can write 1.6 bits on each nucleotide with a 200-base strand which is a good density compared with other methods. In contrast, the encoding method is much simpler and easier to implement.