Acoustic ejection of fluids from a plurality of reservoirs

• Main Authors: MITCHELL W. MUTZ, RICHARD N. ELLSON, JAMES K. FOOTE
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 04.01.2007
• Subjects: APPARATUS FOR ENZYMOLOGY OR MICROBIOLOGY; APPLYING LIQUIDS OR OTHER FLUENT MATERIALS TO SURFACES, IN GENERAL; ATOMISING APPARATUS; BEER; BIOCHEMISTRY; CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOIDCHEMISTRY; CHEMISTRY; COMBINATORIAL CHEMISTRY; COMPOSITIONS THEREOF; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS; CULTURE MEDIA; ENZYMOLOGY; i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; LIBRARIES, e.g. CHEMICAL LIBRARIES, IN SILICOLIBRARIES; LINING MACHINES; MEASURING; METALLURGY; MICROBIOLOGY; MICROORGANISMS OR ENZYMES; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING; NOZZLES; ORGANIC CHEMISTRY; PEPTIDES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL; PHYSICS; PRINTING; PROPAGATING, PRESERVING OR MAINTAINING MICROORGANISMS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS; SPIRITS; SPRAYING APPARATUS; SPRAYING OR ATOMISING IN GENERAL; STAMPS; TESTING; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS; TRANSPORTING; TYPEWRITERS; VINEGAR; WINE

The present invention provides a method for determining the location or orientation of a fluid surface in a reservoir between ejection events and a method for the acoustic ejection of fluid droplets from a fluid-containing reservoir. The invention is useful in a number of contexts, particularly in the preparation of biomolecular arrays such as a peptide arrays and oligonucleotide arrays.