THERMAL CONTROL APPARATUS FOR CHEMICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL REACTIONS

摘要

An apparatus (40) for a PCR reaction includes an array (41) of reaction vessels (42) is mounted on a thermal mount (43). The thermal mount (43) is positioned on a on a heater/cooler (45), such as a Peltier module. The array (41 ) is covered by a sealing film (44), which is sealed to the upper rims (49) of the vessels (42) to keep the reagents and reaction products within each vessel (42). A heated lid (50) is used to heat the underside of the sealing film to reduce condensation thereon of reagents vaporised during the reaction. The reaction vessels (42) are formed of an upper, thermally insulating part (25) and a lower, thermally conducting part (21) so as to facilitate accurate temperature control within the vessels but so as to reduce the amount of thermal energy conducted from the heated lid to the vessels, which would reduce the accuracy of the temperature control. The heated lid (50) may include a conformal layer (51) on its lower surface to conform to any variations in the configuration of the upper rims (49) of the vessels (42). The apparatus may include a thermal barrier between the lower portion (21) of the reaction vessels (42) and the heated lid (50).