Optimal Design of Micro Rayleigh-Benard Convection Polymerase Chain Reaction System

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a molecular biological method for the in vitro amplification of nucleic acid molecule. The research object was to design a micro PCR system, including a Rayleigh-Benard convection PCR chip, measurement circuits, and temperature control circuits. CFDRC simulation was used to acquire the stream function, velocity, and temperature profile in order to achieve the optimal chamber design. MEMS technique was used to fabricate the PCR chip. Agarose gel electrophoresis was used to verify the practicability of Rayleigh-Benard convection PCR system. By comparing with the commercial PCR machine, the designed chip can decrease the reaction time significantly. By comparing with the simulation and PCR experiments between different geometry, users could use settled parameters to obtain optimal designs in the future.