Authors: Robert Macdonald
Mentors: Troy Munro
Insitution: Brigham Young University
Due to the recent developments in the precision of small scale 3-D printing, the use of complex multi-dimensional heating geometries is now very feasible in microfluidics. Small channels can be filled with liquid metal and can become a heat source by passing an electrical current through the liquid metal. There is a desire for the creation of isothermal areas within microfluidic chips for processes such as polymerase chain reaction and melt curve analysis of DNA to detect mutations. One difficulty of designing isothermal areas in microfluidics is the complexity of the geometries involved and the precision needed to be useful. These two problems were addressed by using a finite element software COMSOL to simulate the microfluidic chip to aid in design iteration. Quick evaluation of the performance of different heating geometries in COMSOL allows for faster evolution of our design. Using these principles, a novel microfluidic chip design was developed with a simulated isothermal volume of 5 microliters and a temperature variation of <0.1 degrees Celsius.