A miniaturized cyclic PCR device - modeling and experiments

With the aid of thermal and fluidic modeling using CFDRC ACE + (TM), we designed and fabricated the first miniaturized cyclic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) device in low-temperature cofired ceramics. The device comprises of a serpentine channel with different cross-sectional areas in different reactor zones to provide adequate residence time for the melting, annealing, and extension reaction to take place. This is in contrary to the thermal cycling in the batch PCR system. With a flow rate of 15 mul/min, the designed time to complete 30 PCR cycles is less than 40 min, given the total volume of the device 19 mul, provided an internal pump may be implemented to reduce the dead volume. We have demonstrated DNA amplification in this device, using an external peristaltic pump, and the PCR product was used with a DNA bioelectronic sensor chip (Motorola e-Sensors(TM)) for genotyping experiment. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.