[luddaite]

> Aren't FPGA's used mostly to test/design a circuit that you would then go on to actually fabricate/build?

We use FPGAs in cell sorting because we need to make decisions off of high dimensional data with low latency. The cells moving through our system have velocities higher than 1 m/s. They flow past a set of lasers and wind up in a droplet less than a millisecond later so we need to make a decision whether or not to sort a droplet within that time frame. We don't use ASICs because we don't move enough volume to justify the startup cost.

[vvanders]

They're also really common for interconnect fabric on reasonably complex systems. Lattice does really well in this space with their low-cost FPGAs/CPLDs.

[mirashii]

Are you doing this in a commercial context, or in a university lab or similar? I've seen a few papers come out of universities using this technique but I haven't gotten to look at any commercial gear to see how it works under the hood.

[luddaite]

The company I work at manufactures these instruments. There are a bunch of videos on Youtube explaining how these systems work if you search for "flow sorting". I can also answer questions if you have them.