Apparatus for holding small volumes of liquids

Abstract

An apparatus for holding liquid, such as a microtiter plate, in which a plurality of wells are formed. Each of the wells have side walls that intersect in an edge that defines the boundary between adjacent wells. The edge boundary prevents liquid from collecting between the wells, thereby causing all of the liquid applied to the plate to enter one of the wells. The microtiter plate can be formed from a material having a reflectance and/or fluorescence that is optimized for the particular application in which the microtiter plate will be used. Microtiter plates for use in fluorescence measurement applications are made from material having low fluorescence, such as a liquid crystal polymer, while microtiter plates for use in luminescence measurements are made from material having a high reflectance. Microtiter plates for spectrophotometric applications are made with wells having clear bottoms and opaque walls. Such clear bottomed wells can be made by incorporating a photobleachable dye into the plate material so as to render it essentially opaque and then irradiating the bottoms of the wells so as to render them transparent. Such wells can also be made by forming the plate from an essentially transparent material and then irradiating the sidewalls with a beam of light so as to render them essentially opaque.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.