Method and apparatus for liquid dispensing
First Claim
1. An apparatus for aspirating and dispensing predetermined microfluidic quantities of a fluid, comprising:
- a ceramic tip including a nozzle with an inner taper to provide improved and generally laminar flow, at least a portion of said tip comprising a hydrophobic coating;
a drop-on-demand valve adapted to be opened and closed at a predetermined frequency and/or duty cycle to permit intermittent hydraulic coupling with said tip; and
a positive displacement pump hydraulically coupled with said valve for metering predetermined quantities of fluid to or from said tip.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention relates to a ceramic tip and a random access print head for the transfer of microfluidic quantities of fluid. The print head can randomly collect and deposit fluid samples to transfer the samples from a source plate to a target. The print head can also be programmed to create a direct map of the fluid samples from the source plate on the target or to create any desired pattern or print on the target. The tip and print head can be used for a wide variety of applications such as DNA microarraying and compound reformatting. In one preferred embodiment, the tip is used as a capillary or “gravity” pin to draw or collect source fluid and “spot” or deposit the fluid onto the target via physical contact (touch-off). In another preferred embodiment, the tip is used in conjunction with an aspirate-dispense system to actively aspirate source fluid and deposit the fluid via a contact or non-contact approach. The tip provides improved, accurate and repeatable microfluidic transfer.
96 Citations
27 Claims
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1. An apparatus for aspirating and dispensing predetermined microfluidic quantities of a fluid, comprising:
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a ceramic tip including a nozzle with an inner taper to provide improved and generally laminar flow, at least a portion of said tip comprising a hydrophobic coating; a drop-on-demand valve adapted to be opened and closed at a predetermined frequency and/or duty cycle to permit intermittent hydraulic coupling with said tip; and a positive displacement pump hydraulically coupled with said valve for metering predetermined quantities of fluid to or from said tip. - 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, 26, 27)
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Specification