This paper was presented at the 3rd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2011), which was held at the Makedonia Palace Hotel, Thessaloniki in Greece. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Thessaly, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute.The fabrication process and heat transfer computations for a continuous flow microfluidic device for DNA amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are described. The building blocks are thin polymeric materials aiming at a low cost and low power consumption device. The fabrication is performed by standard pattern transfer techniques (lithography and etching) used for microelectronics fabrication. The DNA sample flows in a meander shaped microchannel formed on a 100μm thick polyimide (PI) layer through three temperature regions defined by the integrated resistive heaters. The heat transfer computations are performed in a unit cell of the device. They show that, for the fabricated device, the variation of the temperature inside the channel zones where each step (denaturation, annealing, or extension) of PCR occur is less than 1.3K.
This variation increases when the thickness of the PI layer increases. The computations also show that similar Silicon-based devices lead to lower temperature difference between the heaters and the DNA sample compared to the polymer-based fabricated device. However, the power consumption is estimated much greater for Silicon-based devices.This work was co-financed by Hellenic
Funds and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Hellenic
National Strategic Reference Framework
(NSRF) 2007-2013, according to Contract no.
MICRO2-45 of the Project “Microelectronic
Components for Lab-on-chip molecular
analysis instruments for genetic and
environmental applications” within the
Programme "Hellenic Technology Clusters in
Microelectronics – Phase-2 Aid Measure"
