Developing a low-cost thermal cycler for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is becoming interested in the pandemic era caused by viruses. PCR is the standard gold for the diagnostic. However, in a low-income country, the availability of the device is limited. In this work, the development of a thermal cycler uses electronic modules available in the market. The central part is thermoelectric for heating and cooling, an embedded system to control, and a low-profile cooling fan. The system temperature control used a combination of feedforward, bang-bang, and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control. The control parameter of the PID was successfully obtained by using Chien servo tuning. The feedforward and bang-bang control are used to optimize the cooling cycle and minimize the rise time. The system shows a well-suited temperature accuracy at the denaturation, annealing, and extension temperature with a temperature deviation of less than 0.5 °C. System performance is maintained even though the system has been running non-stop for 24 hours. The low-profile cooling fan, which is usually used for CPU cooling, shows good results in maintaining temperature stability.
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University of Brawijaya
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