The design and manufacture of functional micro-stationary PCR chip

Abstract

This study presents a novel microfabricated polymerase chain reaction (PCR) chip based on silicon. A microheater utilizing doped semiconductors as heating resistors and a temperature sensor made of Pt are integrated on the chip to make up a thermal module. The micro-stationary PCR chip is fabricated on a silicon wafer using photolithography, wet etching and ion implantation technology. The package is created without complex processes. Three types of configurations for the microheater are designed and simulated to analyze the temperature distribution by the finite element analysis so as to enhance the temperature uniformity in the reaction chamber. With this approach, the microheater is optimized. Finally, the simulation results are validated by infrared images from experiments. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.