Method and apparatus for sorting particles
AssigneeCytonome/St, LLC
InventorsManish Deshpande, John R. Gilbert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for sorting particles moving through a closed channel system of capillary size comprises a bubble valve for selectively generating a pressure pulse to separate a particle having a predetermined characteristic from a stream of particles. The particle sorting system may further include a buffer for absorbing the pressure pulse. The particle sorting system may include a plurality of closely coupled sorting modules which are combined to further increase the sorting rate. The particle sorting system may comprise a multi-stage sorting device for serially sorting streams of particles, in order to decrease the error rate.
Claims13
A particle sorting chip comprising:
- a duct configured to convey particles in a stream, the duct including an inlet and a plurality of flow-through outlet channels formed in a substrate;
- a first chamber formed in the substrate, the first chamber in fluid communication with the duct via a first side opening and otherwise sealed, the first side opening positioned upstream of the plurality of flow-through outlet channels;
- and
- an actuator provided on the substrate and associated with the first chamber, the actuator configured to increase a pressure within the first chamber and to discharge an amount of fluid from the first side opening into the duct during a switching operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.