Miniaturized PCR chips for nucleic acid amplification and analysis: latest advances and future trends

Zhang, Chunsun; Xing, Da

Noninvasive temperature measurement technique based on IR thermography. Temperature measurements by monitoring thermal radiation in the IR spectrum have been widely applied in the PCR chips, especially within the recent two years (10, 14, 17, 30, 32, 47, 64, 65, 67, 70, 77, 79) . Such IR thermography-based technique usually consists of the PCR chip, the environment, the air transmission medium and the measurement device. Factors such as radiation attenuation, background radiation, uncertainty of the chip emissivity and errors from the thermometer itself can affect the accuracy of an IR thermometer. The IR thermometer must be calibrated to compensate for the environmental effects. Although this technique can only obtain the surface temperature distribution of the PCR chip, the actual temperature of the PCR sample can be reasonably deduced with the help of the heat transfer law. Attractive characteristics of this technique also include rapid response, continuous temperature readings, high spatial resolution, no interference with the object observed and the ability to determine the temperature of moving component.