Thermal isolation of microchip reaction chambers for rapid non-contact DNA amplification

This paper describes further optimization of a non-contact, infrared-mediated system for microchip DNA amplification via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The optimization is focused on heat transfer modeling and subsequent fabrication of thermally isolated reaction chambers in glass devices that are uniquely compatible with non-contact thermal control. With a thermal conductivity approximately an order of magnitude higher than many plastics, glass is not the obvious substrate of choice for rapid thermal cycling in microfluidic chambers, yet it is preferable in terms of optical clarity, solvent compatibility and chemical inertness. Based on predictions of a lumped capacity heat transfer analysis, it is shown here that post-bonding, patterned etching of surrounding glass from microfluidic reaction chambers provides enhancements as high as 3.6-and 7.5-fold in cooling and heating rates, respectively, over control devices with the same chamber designs. These devices are then proven functional for rapid DNA amplification via PCR, in which 25 thermal cycles are completed in only 5 min in thermally isolated PCR chambers of 270 nL volume, representing the fastest static PCR in glass devices reported to date. Amplification of the 500-base pair fragment lambda-DNA was confirmed by capillary gel electrophoresis. In addition to rapid temperature control, the fabrication scheme presented, which is compatible with standard photolithography and wet etching techniques, provides a simple alternative for general thermal management in glass microfluidic devices without metallization.