FLUIDICS INTERFACE SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20120143531A1
• Filed: 12/29/2011
• Published: 06/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Life Technologies Corporation (Thermo Fisher Scientific Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Life Technologies Corporation (Thermo Fisher Scientific Incorporated)
• Inventors: Davey, Melville, Roth, George, Marran, David, Mileski, William, Nobile, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,545,248 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/51
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/48785 Electrical and electronic details of measuring devices for physical analysis of liquid biological material not specific to a particular test method, e.g. user interface or power supply

Abstract

A system including a communication interface to communicatively couple to a sensor cartridge, a fluidic subsystem to exchange a reagent solution with the sensor cartridge, and a computational circuitry communicatively coupled to the communication interface and the fluidic subsystem. The computation circuitry is to monitor a sensor signal of a sensor of the sensor cartridge, detect a leak based on the sensor signal, and control fluid flow of the fluidic subsystem in response to detecting.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a communication interface to communicatively couple to a sensor cartridge;

a fluidic subsystem to exchange a reagent solution with the sensor cartridge; and

a computational circuitry communicatively coupled to the communication interface and the fluidic subsystem;

wherein the computation circuitry is to monitor a sensor signal of a sensor of the sensor cartridge, detect a leak based on the sensor signal, and control fluid flow of the fluidic subsystem in response to detecting.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor cartridge includes a sensor exposed to the reagent solution.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor cartridge includes an array of sensors, the sensor being of the array of sensors.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the sensor is a reference sensor of the array of sensors.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor is an ion sensitive sensor.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor is a temperature sensor.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computational circuitry is to detect the leak based on a loss of the sensor signal.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the computational circuitry is to detect the leak based on a change in characteristic of the sensor signal.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the change in characteristic is a change in noise.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the noise is line noise.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the change in characteristic is a change in value beyond a threshold.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a setting to receive the sensor cartridge in alignment with the communication interface.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the fluidic subsystem includes a manifold having fluid ports to engage the sensor cartridge.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface to provide an override option to a user.

15. A method of controlling a system, the method comprising:

establishing communicative coupling between a communication interface and a sensor cartridge;

establishing fluid communication between a fluidic subsystem and a sensor cartridge;

monitoring a sensor signal of the sensor cartridge via the communication interface;

detecting a leak based on a characteristic of the sensor signal; and

controlling fluid flow of the fluidic subsystem in response to detecting the leak.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the characteristic is noise and wherein detecting a leak includes detecting an increase in noise.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the noise includes line noise.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the noise includes crosstalk from another sensor signal.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein detecting includes detecting a loss of the sensor signal.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the characteristic is a value, and wherein detecting the leak includes detecting a value beyond a threshold.

21. A computer readable medium comprising non-transitory computer operable instructions operable by a computational circuitry to perform a method comprising:

monitoring a sensor signal of a sensor cartridge via a communication interface, the sensor cartridge communicatively coupled to the communication interface and in fluid communication with a fluid subsystem;

detecting a leak based on a characteristic of the sensor signal; and

controlling fluid flow of the fluidic subsystem in response to detecting the leak.