Methods and apparatus for incubating droplets
AssigneeAgilent Technologies, Inc.
InventorsJeffrey R Sampson, Reid A Brennen, Richard K Workman, Richard P Tella
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Biopolymers are synthesized on a substrate in a manner that that reduces droplet evaporation including at elevated temperatures. The substrate is enclosed by a lid that form an incubation chamber that is effective to impair evaporation of droplets being dispensed and to provide vapor and temperature adjustments. The biopolymer synthesis may be implemented, for example, as part of the fabrication of a microarray which may be the product of DNA or RNA array printing and for oligonucleotide library synthesis, by chemical and enzymatic procedures.
Claims27
An apparatus for incubating droplets on a surface of a substrate, said apparatus comprising:
- (a) a substrate stage for moving the substrate from a dispensing region to an incubating region;
- (b) a liquid dispensing device in the dispensing region comprising a plurality of dispensing elements for dispensing droplets;
- and
- (c) an incubation lid in the incubating region configured for moving between open and closed positions with respect to the substrate,
- wherein the incubation lid and the substrate form an incubation chamber when the incubation lid is in a closed position.
-8. (canceled)
-11. (canceled)
(canceled)
(canceled)
-22. (canceled)
(canceled)
A method for incubating droplets, the method comprising:
- dispensing droplets onto a top surface of a substrate while the substrate is positioned in a dispensing region;
- moving the substrate to an incubating region;
- forming an incubation volume that substantially encloses the droplets;
- and
- incubating the droplets in the incubation volume.
-60. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.