Reactor for the treatment of a sample medium

• US 7,396,515 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2003
• Issued: 07/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH (C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Co. KG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Steckenborn, Arno, Arndt, Frank, Rönsch, Hendrik
• Primary Examiner(s): Mayekar; Kishor
• Application Number:
  US10/445,187
• Publication Number:
  US 20040013584A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,869 Days
• Field of Search: 422/186, 422/213, 422/224, 417/92
• US Class Current: 422/186
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 33/3031 using electro-hydrodynamic [EHD] or electro-kinetic [EKI] phenomena to mix or move the fluids
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 33/3032 using magneto-hydrodynamic [MHD] phenomena to mix or move the fluids
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 33/451 wherein the mixture is directly exposed to an electromagnetic field without use of a stirrer, e.g. for material comprising ferromagnetic particles or for molten metal
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 19/0093 Microreactors, e.g. miniaturised or microfabricated reactors laboratory containers with capillary fluid transport in microfabricated channels or chambers B01L3/5027
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00481 by the use of moving stirrers within the reaction vessels
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00783 Laminate assemblies, i.e. the reactor comprising a stack of plates
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00853 Employing electrode arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/00889 Mixing micromixers B01F33/30
• CPC Class Codes: B01J 2219/0093 Electric or magnetic energy
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2400/043 magnetic forces
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/50273 characterised by the means or forces applied to move the fluids micropumps F04B19/006, of the membrane type F04B43/043

Abstract

A reactor with a reaction chamber (14), which is produced for example by etching or other micro-mechanical production processes. An agitating device (20) is formed for example by an electrical field generator (18), which acts on electrical charge carriers (21) of the sample fluid, and consequently leads to circulation or mixing of the sample fluid. As an alternative, a magnetic field generator which acts on magnetic particles in the sample fluid may also be used. The reactor permits the extensive miniaturization of test reactors for bioprocesses, since circulation of the fluid to achieve a quasi steady-state bioprocess is possible the agitating devices even under extremely confined spatial conditions.

Claims

1. A reactor, comprising:

a reactor chamber (14, 14a, b) of a micro-mechanical construction adapted to be filled with a sample medium containing magnetic particles mixed therein; and

a generator (20) for a magnetic field which is effective in the interior of the reaction chamber (14, 14a, b) and adapted to be cyclically reversible in its polarity and/or locally variable for causing a motion of the magnetic particles which differs from a motion of the sample medium,

wherein the reaction chamber is annular.

2. The reactor as claimed in claim 1, wherein the generator is a single rotating permanent magnet, the magnet adapted to be cyclically reversible for generating a cyclically reversible circulating magnetic field in the annular reaction chamber and thereby causing a motion of the magnetic particles to be cyclically reversed.

3. The reactor as claimed in claim 1, wherein, along a length of the annular reaction chamber, a number of adjacent electrical magnetic coils are arranged as generators one after the other along the length, and the adjacent magnet coils adapted to generate a circulating magnetic field in the annular reaction chamber and thereby causing a motion of the magnetic particles to be cyclically reversed.