Bead dispensing system
First Claim
1. A system for picking up a plurality of submillimeter beads from a bead supply and transferring them to a desired location, comprising:
- a plurality of projections depending from a support at spaced-apart locations defining an array;
a cavity formed at a lower end region of each of said projections, each of said cavities defined by (i) a lower opening, (ii) an upper ceiling region, and (iii) a sidewall extending between said lower opening and upper ceiling region; and
an attraction source, operable at said projection end regions, effective to draw beads from said supply into said cavities and to releasably retain them therein.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A bead dispensing system is provided for delivering small amounts of substances onto substrates. The system can include, for example, a movable support structure having an array of spaced-apart projections depending from its lower side. An attraction source, such as a vacuum, magnetic, and/or electrostatic force, is operable at each projection end region to attract and retain one bead. The projection array can be aligned with an array of bead-receiving regions of a substrate, e.g., an array of spaced-apart wells of a micro-plate or card. In one embodiment, a plurality of reagent-carrying beads are picked up, retained at respective projection end regions, and moved to a location over a multi-well plate. The beads are then released in a fashion permitting each bead to land in a respective well. The system of the invention is particularly useful for fabricating arrays of reagents.
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Citations
50 Claims
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1. A system for picking up a plurality of submillimeter beads from a bead supply and transferring them to a desired location, comprising:
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a plurality of projections depending from a support at spaced-apart locations defining an array;
a cavity formed at a lower end region of each of said projections, each of said cavities defined by (i) a lower opening, (ii) an upper ceiling region, and (iii) a sidewall extending between said lower opening and upper ceiling region; and
an attraction source, operable at said projection end regions, effective to draw beads from said supply into said cavities and to releasably retain them therein. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 48, 49, 50)
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26. A system for channeling a plurality of submillimeter beads to desired locations on a substrate, comprising:
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an array of micro-bead supports, each support adapted to releasably hold, from above, no more than one submillimeter bead;
a plurality of conduits disposed under said micro-bead support array, said conduits having (i) large openings at their upper ends disposed in an array having a center-to-center pitch like that of the support array such that the large openings are generally alignable thereunder, and (ii) small openings at their lower ends. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. An apparatus for delivering a substance onto a substrate, comprising:
- a plurality of elongated conduits disposed in fixed, spaced relation in a common support structure;
each of said conduits having a large opening at one end and a small opening at its other end;
wherein said large openings are disposed in an array along one side of said support structure, and said small openings are disposed in an array along an opposite side of said support structure;
wherein said large-opening array is arranged with a center-to-center pitch larger than that of the small-opening array;
and wherein a region of each conduit extending from a respective one of said small openings is of capillary size, such that a liquid placed in contact with said small-opening array can be drawn at least partially into said conduits by way of capillary action. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39)
- a plurality of elongated conduits disposed in fixed, spaced relation in a common support structure;
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40. A method for simultaneously transferring a plurality of submillimeter beads from one location to another location, comprising:
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(i) picking up simultaneously a plurality of submillimeter beads from a supply and retaining the beads at respective, spaced-apart locations defining an array;
(ii) releasing the beads, in a substantially simultaneous fashion, over a substrate having an array of separate bead-holding regions; and
(iii) individually channeling each of the released beads, in a substantially simultaneous fashion, into a respective one of said bead-holding regions. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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Specification