Patent ID: 9492826
Filing Date: 2016-11-15
CPC Classification: B01L,C12Q,G01K

Claim Text:
1. In a microfluidic device incorporating thin-film heaters within a plurality of microfluidic channels to effect a biological reaction with multiple steps each requiring a different temperature, a method of controlling the microfluidic with pulse width modulation (PWM) comprising: generating a set of calibration data while calibrating a modulation frequency with a temperature by measuring a cooling rate of the thin-film heaters between pulses and adjusting the modulation frequency based upon the measured rate; using the calibration data to generate a PWM control signal for the thin-film heaters designed to bring the heaters to a desired temperature for a first step in the biological process; adjusting the PWM signal to achieve a temperature for an appropriate time required by said first step; and adjusting the PWM signal to achieve a desired temperature for a second step in the biological process.