microfluidic device can be inserted into a thermal management system where the individual thermal zone sub assemblies of the thermal management device can adjust and move into an operative position directly contacting regions of the microfluidic device each individual thermal zone sub assembly can have one or more thermal zone actuation mechanisms to adjust and move the thermal elements such as heat spreading elements into contact with the microfluidic device at specific locations the geometry of a microfluidic device including the size and shape of its thermally active zones creates a number of challenges in designing a thermal management device it is difficult to produce a microfluidic part or multi zone thermal device that has a high enough degree of flatness to ensure proper contact and conduction between the microfluidic device and the different zones variation in the flatness of a microfluidic part can simply be a result of unavoidable mechanical variation that is still within manufacturing tolerances the thermal zones themselves are very close together and in some instances it is desirable for them to be as close to one another as possible in order to achieve a reaction in sample passing between the thermal zones for example the temperatures of neighboring zones can have a sharp temperature gradient of.