Despite the broad success of biological nanopores as powerful instruments for the analysis of proteins and nucleic acids at the single-molecule level, a fast simulation methodology to accurately model their...
This paper presents the design and development of an optimized aluminum microheater integrated onto a biochip for the amplification of DNA using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A coupled 3D finite element electro-thermal simulation has been used to aid in the design of the microheater and the PCR reactor. The microheater has a special shape, designed to provide a uniform temperature throughout the PCR chamber. The microreactor is fabricated at the center of a 20 mm × 20 mm silicon chip. It has a meandered shape, a volume of 1.89 µl and occupies a square area with a side of 3.8 mm. Microchannels to transport fluid in and out of the reactor are also provided. After heater design optimization, the simulated temperature of the fluid volume within the PCR chamber is very uniform (95% of the volume has a temperature within ±0.2 °C when the average temperature is 60 °C). This result is validated by DNA melting point experiments, showing a very similar uniformity. A PCR experiment, consisting of 50 cycles of amplification is conducted to demonstrate functionality of the system; amplifications is uniform across the reactor with variation of the threshold cycle within about 0.5 units.
A novel method is presented for triggering a robust capillary stop valve fabricated in silicon using the thermal expansion of trapped air bubble ( with a footprint of just 300 μm x 320 μm ) as the actuation element. A heating element on the backside of a bubble trap chamber is utilized for thermal expansion of the air bubble. A voltage pulse of around 6V, the capillary barrier, around 1400 Pa was easily breached. A non-dimensionalized model has been developed using equivalent circuit model to describe the complex thermal/hydraulic behavior of the system. The trapped gas bubble temperature is input as a function of time in the model. A thermal finite element-based simulation is conducted to determine the gas temperature from the experimentally measured heater temperature. The model results are validated against experiments to aid in characterizing the dynamics of the problem.
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