Design and function
qTOWER³ / qTOWER³ G
16
4.2.2
PCR thermocycler
The thermal block with 96 wells is made of silver for the best possible performance and
thermal conductivity. The silver is coated with gold for corrosion protection. Due to its
excellent heat conductivity, silver equilibrates extremely quickly, providing maximum
speed and uniform temperature distribution.
This achieves a high temperature homogeneity and uniformity in combination with
heating rates of up to 8 °C/s and cooling rates of up to 6 °C/s.
The G model variant is additionally equipped with a gradient function, and is particularly
suited for establishing new primary pairs.
The thermal blocks are perfectly sealed to prevent condensed water from penetrating
the Peltier elements underneath the sample block and other parts of the electronics.
This protects the Peltier elements and prolongs the service life of the device.
4.2.3
Heated lid
The device comes equipped with an automated heated lid. This can be set to
30 to 110 °C and prevents condensation forming in the area of the reaction tubes above
the block surface level. Furthermore, the heated lid guarantees – regardless of the con-
sumables used – a reliable contact between the reaction tubes and the thermal block
during the entire real-time PCR run thanks to a constant contact pressure. This signifi-
cantly improves temperature uniformity.
4.2.4
Plastic
Sample blocks in 96-well SBS format are suitable for use with 0.2 mL individual tubes,
8-well strips and 96-well micro titer plates.
These and other consumables can be ordered from Analytik Jena.
For real-time PCR applications, it is important that the sample carriers in plate format
are sealed with optically transparent foil (sealing foil) before the PCR run. 0.2 mL indi-
vidual tubes and 8-well strips must be sealed with the corresponding suitable optical
lids.
NOTICE! The optical transparency of the foils affects the fluorescence signal directly.
For this reason, only use clear adhesive foil such as that provided for real-time PCR.
Regardless of the sealing method used, thanks to the lid technology, the same pressure
is always applied to the consumables for absolutely reproducible conditions.
The device is not limited to specific detection reagents or the plastic products of a spe-
cific manufacturer.