Portable Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR): Thermal ramping rate performance evaluation

Thermal ramping rate is the key parameters to determine the performance of portable PCR. In this work, a portable PCR system was developed with two different dimensions of Aluminium block. The dimensions of the blocks were 30 mm × 30 mm × 8 mm (portable-8) and 30 mm × 30 mm × 15 mm (portable-15). The thermal ramping rate of the block was evaluated by heating up and cooling down the block between 50°C to 95°C. Commercial portable PCR systems like OpenPCR, Slim PCR cycler and miniPCR™ were used as a benchmark to determine the thermal ramping rate of the developed system. The results show the portable-8 had better thermal ramping rate performance and shorter heating period.