Failure Prediction of Polymerase Chain Reaction Thermal Cycler

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper, we predict the aging of the PCR thermocycler by analyzing the heating and cooling rates of the PCR thermocycler. Two kinds of methods were applied to calculate the rise times of the heating and cooling protocol sections that were inversely related to the heating or cooling rates. The temporal changes of the rise times were investigated over several months. For three thermal cyclers with different structures, the increases of the rise times were fairly linear indicating the feasibility of the aging measurement.