The development of a portable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) device is presented. The fully integrated self-contained system consists of four major parts: a disposable chamber chip with micro-channels and pumping membranes, a heater chip with micro-heaters and temperature sensors, a linear array of electromagnetic actuators, and a control/sensing circuit.The system can be fully operated with a 5V DC voltage, and does not require any external air compressor or bulky power supply.The size of the whole system is 67mm × 66mm × 25mm, and is smaller than a PDA cell-phone.The miniaturized PCR system not only has the advantage of smaller size, less consumption of DNA solution, but also can effectively reduce the PCR process time into one-third of the time required by typical commercial PCR system.
Publication: B T. Chia, S.-A. Yang, M.-Y. Cheng, C.-L. Lin, C.-W. Lin and Y.-J. Yang, “A Self-contained Miniaturized PCR System,” IEEE MEMS 2009, Sorrento, Italy, Jan. 25-29, 2009.
Address :
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
National Taiwan University,
No. 1, Roosevelt Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C)
