Incubation chamber

An incubation assembly for handling biological samples and test reagents in an automated biological testing system, said assembly comprising:

• at least first and second rings, selectively associated for both fixed and independent rotation in response to control signals, at least one of which rings is adapted for holding sample cuvettes in spaced cuvette receiving positions and at least one other of said rings has a sample and reagent condition effector that is selectively applied to a biological sample and test reagent combination in said cuvettes by relative rotation of the first and second rings in response to said control signals;
• a bearing structure supporting said first and second rings for relative rotation;
• at least one sample dosing assembly responsive to said control signals and having a fluid transfer probe for applying a dose of a sample to be tested from a sample supply to a cuvette in one said ring at at least one first position to which cuvettes in that ring can be rotated;
• at least one reagent dosing assembly responsive to said control signals and having a fluid transfer probe for applying a dose of a reagent to be used in testing from a reagent supply to a sample containing cuvette in one said ring at at least one second position to which cuvettes in that ring can be rotated;
• a cuvette placement assembly having a supply of cuvettes and a cuvette delivery mechanism delivering cuvettes to at least one third position to which a cuvette receiving position in said cuvette holding ring can be placed by rotation of said cuvette holding ring in response to said control signals;
• a cuvette extraction assembly extracting sample and reagent containing cuvettes from at least one fourth position to which a cuvette in said at least one cuvette holding ring can be placed by rotation of said ring in response to said control signals;
• a scheduler of said control signals providing coordinated rotation of said at least first and second rings, sample and reagent dosing assemblies and cuvette placement and extraction assemblies for incubation of a sample and reagent in each cuvette for selectable incubation times and activation of the cuvette sample and reagent effector in said at least one second ring prior to extraction by said cuvette extraction assembly;
• an indexing mechanism that positions the first and second rings relative to each other at any one of a plurality of positions corresponding to a number of cuvette receiving positions;
• and
• an escapement associated with the indexing mechanism that indexes the relative position of the first and second rings by at least the distance between adjacent cuvette receiving positions in response to a trigger.

An incubation assembly for handling biological samples and test reagents in an automated biological testing system, said assembly comprising:

• at least first and second ring segments, selectively associated for both fixed and independent rotation in response to control signals, at least one of which ring segments is adapted for holding sample cuvettes in spaced cuvette receiving positions and at least one other of said ring segments has a sample and reagent condition effector that is selectively applied to a biological sample and test reagent combination in said cuvettes by relative rotation of the first and second ring segments in response to said control signals;
• at least one sample dosing assembly responsive to said control signals and having a fluid transfer probe for applying a dose of a sample to be tested from a sample supply to a cuvette in said cuvette holding ring segment at least one first position to which cuvettes in that ring segment can be rotated;
• at least one reagent dosing assembly responsive to said control signals and having a fluid transfer probe for applying a dose of a reagent to be used in testing from a reagent supply to a sample containing cuvette in said cuvette holding ring segment at least one second position to which cuvettes in that ring segment can be rotated;
• a cuvette placement assembly having a supply of cuvettes and a cuvette delivery mechanism delivering cuvettes to at least one third position to which a cuvette receiving position in said cuvette holding ring segment can be placed by rotation of said cuvette holding ring segment in response to said control signals;
• a cuvette extraction assembly extracting sample and reagent containing cuvettes from at least one fourth position to which a cuvette in said cuvette holding ring segment can be placed by rotation of said ring segment in response to said control signals;
• an indexing mechanism positioning said at least first and second ring segments relative to each other at any one of a plurality of positions corresponding to a number of cuvette receiving positions;
• an escapement associated with said indexing mechanism indexing the relative position of the first and second ring segments by at least the distance between adjacent cuvette receiving positions in response to a trigger;
• and
• a scheduler of said control signals providing coordinated rotation of said at least first and second ring segments, sample and reagent dosing assemblies and cuvette placement and extraction assemblies for incubation of a sample and reagent in each cuvette for selectable incubation times and activation of the sample and reagent effector in said at least one second ring segment prior to extraction by said cuvette extraction assembly.