Versatile digital polymerase chain reaction chip design, fabrication, and image processing

We present a family of digital polymerase chain reaction (dPCR) chips made of silicon that are (9×9) mm2 in size, have a unique layout design, and have between 26,448 and 1,656,000 reaction wells. The chip design, with fully automated image processing, provided a fast and reliable system for the absolute quantitative analysis of dPCR. Combined with ease-of-use, this family of dPCR chips offers a pathway to enable fast and affordable digital microfluidic diagnostic applications.