Study on a Low Power and High Efficiency Micro Heater Used in μPCR Chip

Abstract

Thermal properties and power consumption of a micro heater used in micro polymerase chain reaction (μPCR) chip was analyzed utilizing Finite Element Analysis (FEA), and a low power and high efficiency micro heater was designed. By using borosilicate-glass as the substrate instead of silicon, the power consumption of the μPCR chip reduced 80%. To overcome the high thermal insulation of the borosilicate-glass substrate, water forced cooling system based on micro flow channels was designed to speed up the μPCR cycling. 3D thermal and fluidic models of the μPCR chip with both micro heaters fabricated on silicon and borosilicate-glass were built to analyze their properties. The depth of the micro flow channel was optimized. Experimental results revealed that the cooling rate reached 13.8°/s with the 100μm-deep micro flow channel.