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As the next generation of digital microfluidic biochips (DMFBs) platform, Micro-electrode-dot-array (MEDA) has sea-of-micro-electrodes that support fine-grained control of the droplet and constant real-time monitoring of droplet paths. As MEDA biochips are expected to be had a booming market in the near future, their security, especially the protection of intellectual property (IP), has become the focus of the academic community. In this paper, we first propose a logic encryption-based IP protection scheme for MEDA biochips, called MEDASec, which is without modifying the structure. Our scheme aims to hide the droplet mix-split operation in bioassay, making the IP akin to a black-box in the manufacturing process. Besides, increasing computing power has facilitated the threat of brute force attacks on the secret key. In response to the brute force attack, we propose security metrics for the first time, called RRA, to evaluate the ratio of reagents that result from biochemical reactions. Experimental results on multiple bioassays demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed logical encryption strategy against the brute force attack.

The digital microfluidic biochips (DMFBs) have the advantages of high precision, small consumption of samples/reagents, and high flexibility in experimental places. Nowadays, DMFB technology has been implemented in industry, such as by illumina. However, similar to the situation faced in integrated circuits, DMFBs also suffer from various security risks and end users usually know little about these security threats. Accordingly, in this paper, we propose a survey on DMFBs security in the research community. First, we prevent an overview of the attack behaviors in DMFBs and list them according to the design and manufacture flow. Then, we outline the current defense techniques and classify them into several categories according to their corresponding purposes and functions. Finally, the comparison between security threats faced in DMFBs and the corresponding defense techniques are provided and analyzed in detail, thus presenting the future research trends in DMFBs security.