A method of forming arrays of droplets
AssigneeNuclera Ltd
InventorsDavid Zhitomirsky, Luke M. Slominski, Richard J. Paolini, JR., Andreas Michael Waeber, Michael Jan Horka, Sumit Kalsi, Gordon Ross Mclnroy
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for forming an array of droplets by repeatedly splitting of a large droplet into smaller droplets. The method involves taking one or more large droplets and repeated splitting in multiple dimensions to form an array of smaller droplets within the original area of the array.
Claims22
A method for forming a plurality of droplets on an electrokinetic device, the method comprising taking two or more first droplets and splitting each of the first droplets n times into smaller droplets, wherein n>=2 and the splitting occurs in at least two directions, x and y, on the electrokinetic device to form a regular two-dimensional array with drops having equal spacing s1 along one axis and equal spacing s2 along a second axis.
The method according to any one preceding claim wherein at least 96 first droplets are split simultaneously.
The method according to any one preceding claim wherein the two directions, x and y, are at 90° to each other.
The method according to any one preceding claim wherein the direction along which a split occurs alternates in each step of the repeated splitting.
The method according to any one preceding claim wherein the final droplets are less than 250 nL in volume.
The method according to any one preceding claim wherein the final droplets occupy fewer than 10 pixels of the electrokinetic device per droplet.
The method according to any one preceding claim wherein the final droplets occupy fewer than 4 pixels of the electrokinetic device per droplet.
The method according to any one preceding claim wherein the first droplets occupy at least 10×10 pixels of the electrokinetic device per droplet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.