IR thermocycler for centrifugal microfluidic platform with direct on-disk wireless temperature measurement system

We present an infrared (IR) thermocycler with closed loop temperature control for performing fast polymerase chain reactions (PCR) in centrifugal microfluidics. It consists of an IR ring heater and an on-disk wireless temperature sensor module with a resolution of 0.1 K. The closed loop system enables to precisely control the temperature of the reagents even at varying conditions e.g. manufacturing tolerances of the polymer film disks, different locations of the cavities, ambient temperature changes. Due to the direct heating of the reagents by IR absorption we achieve fast average heating gradients of up to 4 K/s. Average cooling gradients so far are limited to 1.3 K/s. Our system is superior in terms of energy efficiency, temperature accuracy and overall reproducibility and robustness.