Air bubble resistant and disposable microPCR chip with a portable and programmable device for forensic test

Abstract

Due to the difficulty in sample introduction, the presence of air bubbles and the complicated fabrication with high cost, there are no commercial products of microfluidic polymerase chain reaction (microPCR) on the market yet. In this study, an air bubble resistant and disposable microPCR chip was developed. A simple fabrication method using Norland Optical Adhesive 81 (NOA81) as the substrates was employed to prepare the microPCR chip. The temperature of the microPCR chip was controlled using a self-developed portable and programmable PCR apparatus. The simulation results indicate that the developed microPCR chip has good performance in temperature stability even in the presence of air bubbles. The DNA was successfully amplified without adding bovine serum albumin, implicating that the developed microPCR chip has low adsorption of DNA polymerase. The good performance of microPCR chip attributed to the property of NOA81, the fabrication method and the irreversible sealing. The portable and programmable PCR device combined with the disposable microPCR chip is suitable for the amplification of both short and long DNA fragments and Short Tandem Repeats (STRs). It offers a practical approach for portable forensic test, combining the cost benefits of small volume reagent with the disposable polymer microPCR chip.