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US 8,772,016 B2Granted
Sealed chip package
AssigneePacific Biosciences of California, Inc.
InventorsPaul Newby, William R. Hanson, John Dixon, Bidhan Chaudhuri, Ravi Saxena
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Abstract
The invention provides environmental packages, instruments, and methods for sealing, protecting, and providing analysis chips for processing and analysis. The analysis chips are bonded directly or indirectly to chip carriers which are held within the chambers of an environmental packaging strip. The chambers are sealed with a sealing film such that the chip carriers can be extracted using a piercing tool and an extraction tool.
Claims14
An analysis instrument comprising:
- a) a station for receiving a sealed environmental strip having a plurality of individually sealed chambers, each chamber having a bottom, a top, and sidewalls, the top of each chamber sealed with a sealing film;
- wherein a single chip carrier comprising an analysis chip is disposed within each chamber;
- b) an automated chip extractor comprising (i) a piercing tool that pierces the sealing layer of at least one of the chambers;
- and (ii) an extraction tool that extracts the chip carrier from the chamber and transports the chip carrier comprising the analysis chip to an automated processing station;
- c) an automated processing station that prepares the chips for analysis by adding at least one reagent, and at least one sample to the chip;
- d) a tool for transporting the chip carrier comprising the analysis chip from the processing station to an analysis station;
- and
- e) an analysis station which holds the chip carrier comprising the analysis chip in place during analysis.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.