Thermal Gradient Instrument for Gene Amplification

This paper presents an integrated thermal gradient device for gene amplification. This instrument consists of a 16- bit MCU chip with 256k flash-ROM, six thermoelectric heat pumps placed on top of a micro-machined silicon chip integrated with three temperature sensors, three power amplifiers, three integrated 12-bit analog-to-digitals, three integrated 12-bit digital -to- analogs and a lid-heater. It is a new gene amplification technique that is characterized by periodic temperature ramping. There are three channels that are determined by temperature control system individually in the instrument. The advantages of this system are the high stability of the temperature, rapid thermo-cycling and the easy of establishment of the adequate conditions for the nested polymerase chain reaction.