Precise temperature control for nucleic- acid amplification based microfluidic devices

I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of B.Sc. in Applied Physics is entirely my own work, does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Abstract The area of microfluidics is a multidisciplinary field focusing on the academic and commercial aspects of the behaviour of fluids at small volumes. By utilizing these unique physical properties both the speed and efficiency of many macro scale biological and chemical analysis can be greatly enhanced. This has led to the concept of a Lab on Chip (LOC). The premises of LOC are a sample in / answer out system integrated unto a single chip of relatively small dimensions. While the field itself has been in existence for over two decades, it has yet to make significant practical inroads beyond numerous academic articles and a handful of commercially successful products. One particular application of LOC is in the area of pathogen detection and in particular the analysis of Mastitis for use in the dairy industry. A portable, accurate and swift onsite analysis system would prevent the contamination of large volumes of milk at the source. An essential component of such a device is the PCR chamber. This chamber allows for DNA amplification to occur which in turns allows for the post PCR analysis to detect the presence of Mastitis DNA and hence identify contaminated milk at the source. By preventing this relatively small batch of milk from contaminating the greater supply then significant cost savings may be made. The purpose of this project was to investigate the physical parameters involved in heating / cooling designing aspects of such a PCR chamber.