Make a Soft Digital Clock Tick With Millifluidics

What happened

According to IEEE Spectrum’s source item, Make a Soft Digital Clock Tick With Millifluidics, Electrons are great . We use them to move vehicles, illuminate cities, and, of course, compute. But computation is not confined to the world of electronics. And shifting to alternative nonelectronic realms can unlock unique advantages: Photonic chips, for instance, process information with light while generating little heat. Another compelling alternative is fluidics , which uses pressurized gases or liquids to build logic circuits. Pioneered in the 1960s but sidelined by microchips, the field reemerged in the 1990s as “ microfluidics .” This approach aims to shrink laboratories onto a single chip by creating microscopic fluid channels with integrated micropneumatic control systems. Today, there is a second fluidic revival, this time in the domain of soft robotics . Scaling microfluidic designs up to the millimeter-scale range (millifluidics) enables the higher flow rates necessary to dr

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Technology file for readers following technology, science, product policy, markets, infrastructure, and the public consequences of innovation. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-05-29T13:00:01+00:00.

What to watch

Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.

Source

Primary source: Make a Soft Digital Clock Tick With Millifluidics via IEEE Spectrum. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.