Digital Polymerase Chain Reaction in an Array of Femtoliter Polydimethylsiloxane Microreactors

We developed a simple, compact microfluidic device to perform high dynamic-range digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) in an array of isolated 36-femtoliter microreactors. The density of the microreactors exceeded 20 000/mm2. This device, made from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), allows the samples to be loaded into all microreactors simultaneously. The microreactors are completely sealed through the deformation of a PDMS membrane. The small volume of the microreactors ensures a compact device with high reaction efficiency and low reagent and sample consumption. Future potential applications of this platform include multicolor dPCR and massively parallel dPCR for next generation sequencing library preparation.