PDMS–glass serpentine microchannel chip for time domain PCR with bubble suppression in sample injection

This paper reports on the development of a low-cost microreactor (10 µl) biochip for DNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The microbiochip (20 mm × 28 mm) is a hybrid type that is composed of a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layer with a serpentine microchannel (360 µm × 100 µm) chamber and glass substrate integrated with a microheater and thermal microsensor. Because of the hydrophobic chip surface, bubbles are usually created during sample loading in the PMDS-based microchip. These bubbles disrupt the stable biochemical reaction. An improved microreactor chamber was designed using microfluidic simulation. The reactor has a rounded-corner serpentine channel architecture, which enables stable injection into the hydrophobic surface using only a micropipette. The reactor temperature needed for the PCR reaction is controlled within ±0.5 °C by the LabVIEW software proportional-integrative-derivative (PID) controller. PCR analyses of the sex-determining Y chromosome (SRY) gene and mouse GAPDH gene were successfully performed in less than 54 min by the fabricated microreactor chip.