LTCC microflow analyzers with monolithic integration of thermal control

Abstract

Recently, the low temperature co-fired ceramics technology has shown to be an excellent alternative to silicon-based microfabrication techniques for the production of three-dimensional structures using a multi-layer approach. This enables the integration of several unitary operations of a classical analytical process and also the integration of sensors, actuators and electronics in the same substrate. In this work, we show the integration of the actuators and the sensors needed for the control of temperature inside a miniaturized fluidic device. The proposed device presents enough thermal accuracy to be used in chemical systems where temperature control is a crucial factor, such as enzyme reactions or polymerase chain reaction systems.