Highly parallel fabrication of microarrays by ink jet printheads
AssigneeArray Jet Limited
InventorHoward John Manning
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method is described of operating an ink jet printhead having one or more manifolds each connected to more than one chamber, each chamber being associated with a nozzle and capable of ejecting drops therefrom: a number of different liquids larger than the number of manifolds is introduced into the printhead via the nozzles; and the volume of the liquid subsequently printed from each nozzle is less than the volume of the chamber associated with that nozzle, and also less than the volume of liquid introduced into that chamber. By this means the printhead prints more different liquids than is conventionally possible without mixing them.
Claims26
A printing apparatus comprising:
- a printhead capable of printing a number of different samples without the samples being mixed;
- and
- at least one manifold associated with the printhead, said at least one manifold being capable of handling a plurality of samples for printing by the printing apparatus, wherein said at least one manifold is provided with a chamber, and wherein a number of different samples larger than the number of manifolds are introduced into chambers via nozzles in the printhead.
A printing apparatus comprising:
- a printhead capable of printing a number of different samples without the samples being mixed;
- at least one manifold associated with the printhead, said at least one manifold being capable of handling a plurality of samples for printing by the printing apparatus;
- and
- a connection block attached to the nozzles.
A method of printing a number of different samples using a printhead apparatus comprising a printhead capable of printing a number of different samples without the samples being mixed, and at least one manifold associated with the printhead, said at least one manifold being capable of handling a plurality of samples for printing by the printing apparatus, wherein a number of different liquids larger than the number of manifolds are introduced into chambers via nozzles in the printhead.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.