Table 1 Characteristics of different digital PCR platforms.
|  | Biomark | QuantStudio™ 3D | Naica | RainDrop plus™ | QX200™ Droplet Digital™ PCR | CONSTELLATION® DPCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Company | Fluidigmâ„¢ | Applied Biosystems/Life technologiesâ„¢ | Stilla Technologies | RainDanceâ„¢ Technologies | Bio-Rad | Formulatrix |
Type | Integrated fluidic circuits (IFCS) arrays | Chip | Crystal droplets in an array | Picosized droplets | Nanosized droplets | Microfluidic chambers |
Detection mode | Real-time and end-point | End-point | End-point | End-point | End-point | End-point |
Chip/partitions consumables | qdPCR 37 K IFC, 48.770 and 12.765 Digital Array™ IFC | QuantStudio™ 3D Digital PCR Chip (v1/v2) | Sapphire chip | RainDance Source Chip | Microfluidic cartridge | CONSTELLATION® Digital PCR System microplate |
Number of samples (max) | ||||||
 Loading | 48/12 samples per array | 1 sample per chip | 4 samples per chip | 8 samples | 96 samples | 24/96 samples |
 Cycling | 48/12 samples | 24 samples | 3 chips or 14 samples | 96 samples | 96 samples | 24/96 samples |
 Reading | 48/12 samples | 1 sample per chip | 3 chips or 14 samples | 8 samples | 96 samples | 24/96 samples |
Input volume per sample | 4 µL/8 µL | 14.5 µL | 25 µL | 25–50 µL | 20 µL | 10 µL |
Reactions per sample | 770/765 | 20,000 | 25,000-30,000 | 5–10 million | 20,000 | 36,000/8000 |
Reaction volume per partition | 0.85Â nL/6Â nL | 0.755Â nL (v2 chip) or 0.809Â nL (v1 chip) | 0.43Â nL | 5Â pL | 0.868Â nL [10] | NA |
Specialized equipment | IFC controller Biomark (thermal cycler and reader) | ProFlex™ 2 × Flat PCR System QuantStudio™ 3D Digital PCR Instrument | Naica Geode (thermal cycler) Naica Prism3 (reader) | RainDance Source/ThunderBolts™ System RainDrop® Sense Operator | QX200™ Droplet Generator QX200™ Droplet Digital™ PCR System | CONSTELLATION® Digital PCR System |
Software | Digital PCR Analysis | QuantStudio™ 3D AnalysisSuite™ | Crystal Miner | RainDrop Analyst II™ | QuantaSoft™ | CONSTELLATION® |
Detection | Detection of up to 3 fluorescent dyes per assay | 2 detection channels (FAM/VIC) | 3 color detection (FAM/VIC/Cy5) | 2 detection channels (FAM/VIC) | 2 detection channels (FAM/VIC) | 5 probe wavelengths per sample |