Focused acoustic radiation for rapid sequential ejection of subwavelength droplets
AssigneeLabcyte Inc.
InventorRichard G. Stearns
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Focused acoustic radiation, referred to as tonebursts, are applied to a volume of liquid to generate a set of droplets. In one embodiment, a first toneburst is applied to temporarily raise a mound or protuberance on a free surface of the fluid. After the mound has reached a certain state, at least two additional toneburst can be applied to the protuberance to sequentially eject multiple bursts of multiple droplets. In one embodiment, the state of the mound can be maintained by a sustained acoustic signal, during which time multiple additional tonebursts can be applied to sequentially eject multiple bursts of multiple droplets from the mound.
Claims20
A method of creating a collection of droplets from a fluid in a reservoir, comprising:
- applying a first toneburst of focused acoustic radiation to the fluid in the reservoir at a first time point, the first toneburst configured to raise a mound on a free surface of the fluid;
- and
- breaking up the mound into a plurality of droplets by:
- applying a second toneburst to the mound at a second time point during a time period occurring after the first toneburst;
- and
- applying a third toneburst to the mound at a third time period occurring after the second toneburst.
A method of creating a collection of droplets from a fluid in a reservoir, comprising:
- applying a first toneburst of focused acoustic radiation to the fluid in the reservoir at a first time point, the first toneburst configured to raise a mound on a free surface of the fluid;
- acoustically stabilizing the mound;
- and
- applying a second toneburst to the mound at a second time point during a time period occurring after the mound has been stabilized, the second toneburst configured to break up the mound into a first plurality of droplets.
A droplet ejection system configured to eject droplets from a fluid in a reservoir into a sample inlet of an analytical device, the system comprising:
- an acoustic ejector configured to:
- apply a first toneburst of focused acoustic radiation to the fluid in the reservoir at a first time point, the first toneburst configured to raise a mound on a free surface of the fluid;
- and
- break up the mound into a plurality of droplets by applying successive tonebursts to the mound.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.