Low volume liquid handling by a "dispensing well plate"P. Koltay, R. Steger, G. Birkle, H. Sandmaier, R. Zengerle
Institute for Micro System Technology, University of Freiburg, Germany
We present the prototype of a novel dispensing and storage device termed ispensing well plate?(DWP) which is capable of dispensing a fixed volume of liquid in a massive parallel fashion. The device is meant for storing and filling reagents or compounds into 1536-format well plates. The targeted volume is 50 nL. This value however can be adjusted also to lower values, by the design of the plate. The device consists of an actuation unit driving the DWP which is actually a micro fluidic dosage chip micro machined in silicon. The prototype of the DWP comprises at this stage 96 separate reservoirs and nozzles at a pitch of 2.25 mm which can be filled with different liquids. Upon actuation the dosage volume of 50 nL is ejected by a free jet from all nozzles at the same time.
In the paper we present the operation principle which is illustrated by the use of computational fluid dynamic simulations. Then we focus on the results of characterization measurements using DMSO, water and different DMSO based solutions. These measurements indicate a good fluidic performance (CV < 6% in well plates, CV < 1% on slides) of the device. In order to prove its applicability in the HTS environment we also present results obtained by carrying out experiments in 1536-format using a DWP and fluorometric measurement techniques.
contact: Peter Koltay <[email protected]>
Low volume liquid handling
Posted - 03/13/2002 : 5:14:45 PM
