Design and thermal analysis of a micro-chamber PCR integrated chip

A novel microfabricated Polymerase Chain Reaction ( PCR ) chip based on silicon is proposed. A microheater, adopting doped semiconductors as heating resistors, is utilized to increase the heating efficiency and improve the temperature uniformity of the chamber. The temperature control module, which is comprised by the Pt temperature sensor and microheater integrated in the bottom of the chip, can provide three kinds of specific temperature for the PCR reaction process. In addition, an open type reaction chamber with a volume of about 1. 78 μL is devised to facilitate temperature calibration. Lumped parameter method is introduced to calculate the power and the rate in the cycle process of heating and cooling. The ANSYS®software simulates the thermodynamic properties and thermal cycling process of the chip. Then an optimal microheater design method and suitable heating power are obtained. Finally, a suit of feasible layout and fabrication process are contrived. The chip has many advantages, such as small size, rapid reaction rate, high heating efficiency and high integration, etc.