AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition
    MEMS and NEMS Tuesday Sessions
       Session MN-TuP

Paper MN-TuP1
Analysis of Convective Performance in Confined Droplets with Various Working Fluids and Substrates for Polymerase Chain Reaction Applications

Tuesday, October 29, 2013, 6:00 pm, Room Hall B

Session: MEMS and NEMS Poster Session
Presenter: P.L. Chen, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taiwan, Republic of China
Authors: P.L. Chen, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taiwan, Republic of China
C.S. Yu, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taiwan, Republic of China
C.C. Yang, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taiwan, Republic of China
Y.H. Lin, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taiwan, Republic of China
Y.H. Tang, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taiwan, Republic of China
M.H. Shiao, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taiwan, Republic of China
C.-N. Hsiao, National Applied Research Laboratories, Taiwan, Republic of China
Correspondent: Click to Email
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a procedure which repeating thermal cycles with three discrete temperature steps, including denaturation (95oC), annealing (60 oC), and extension (72 oC) for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) amplification. It usually takes 1 or 2 hour to complete the PCR process in commercial equipment. In order to reduce reagent solution and increase heat transfer rate, micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) and microfluidic technologies are utilized to miniaturize the PCR system. Furthermore, a new concept for the development of microchips that uses Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection to perform PCR amplification of DNA is rapidly increased in the past few years. However, the challenges for RB-PCR devices involve the control of flowing performance and chemical pollution . The aim of present work is to investigate the convective performance in a 2 µl droplet for the application of real-time PCR with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. The influence of several major parameters, such as the viscosity and density of working fluid, and the type of substrate on the overall temperature distribution, pressure drop and velocity distribution were all analyzed and discussed. The simulated results show that the steady state was reached in 3 seconds and 30 cycles were completed in 10 minutes inside the droplet by controllable flowing conditions. The droplet based RB-PCR device offers a miniaturized thermal circulation system by natural convention without tedious three steps temperature control or flow control and potentially applicable for real-time DNA microarray analysis.