Thermal Analysis of a Continuous Flow Polymerase Chain Reaction Microdevice Using Analytical Finite Element Simulation

A simplified general purpose analytical finite element model has been developed to analyze the thermal performance of a continuous flow polymerase chain reaction (CPCR) microdevice. The corresponding governing differential equations along with the appropriate boundary conditions have been solved using a self‐developed code in Matlab®. Results obtained from the finite element simulations have been validated with available published results and also showed good agreement with those obtained from commercial FEA package, ANSYS®. The present methodology has an added advantage due to its flexibility where the unit cell of the finite element model can be arranged into different orientation for analyses of different CPCR microdevice configuration. In microchannel heat sinks, the results obtained agree well with the published result which demonstrates the flexibility and robustness of present methodology to be used for various applications.