Application of Feedforward Technology in the Polymerase Chain Reaction Device

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) serves to copy DNA. It uses repeated cycles, each of which is characterized by high ramp rates and short temperature holds with PCR device and repeated the number of copied DNA molecules doubles. In order to reduce the time taken to complete a standard PCR protocol, a combined feedforward plus PID control is proposed, of which, the feedforward control is a predictive controller and significantly improves the dynamic performance on the temperature control process. The major load disturbance to a process in PCR device may be measured by sensors and the feedforward controller is taken for a change in a disturbance input before it affects the system output. In the most situations, feedforward control can reduce the effect of the measured disturbance (such as environment temperature) on the output better than that achievable by PID control alone. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy performs better than the conventional PID controller.