A Novel Circular Ferro-Fluid Driven Flow-Through Microchip for Rapid DNA Amplification

In this paper, we present a novel circular close-loop ferrofluid driven microchip for rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A small ferrofluid plug, containing sub-domain magnetic particles in a liquid carrier, is driven by an external magnet along the circular microchannel, which in turn propels the PCR mixture through three temperature zones. Using magnet as the actuator eliminates the need for expensive pumps and provides advantages of low cost, small power consumption, low requirement on bonding strength and flexible number of PCR cycles. Furthermore, the microchip has much simpler design and smaller footprint compared to the rectangular serpentine continuous flow (CF) PCR devices.