Patent ID: 7628961

Claim:
A nucleic acid sequence amplification apparatus using PCR, which apparatus comprises: a plurality of heat sources which supply heat to, or remove heat from a plurality of specific regions in a sample, wherein the plurality of heat sources are arranged to maintain a spatial temperature distribution in the sample such that a first heat source providing heat to a lower portion of the sample is located lower in height than a second heat source removing heat from an upper portion of the sample and a relatively high temperature region is located lower in height than a relatively low temperature region in the sample, wherein the spatial temperature distribution comprises spatial regions fulfilling temperature conditions suitable for (i) a denaturation step in which double strand DNAs become separated to single strand DNAs, (ii) an annealing step in which the single strand DNAs formed in the denaturation step hybridize to the primers to form DNA-primer complexes, or (iii) a polymerization step in which the primers in the DNA-primer complexes are extended by the polymerization reaction, and wherein the apparatus further comprises an insulator positioned between the first and second heat sources.