Roche Molecular Systems, Inc.

Daniel Bommer

Thomas Schlaubitz

Pius Studer

Paul Federer

Guido Grueter

Stefan Job

A heating device for heating a thermally fixable sealing cover disposed over the microplate adjacent the wells, a cooling device for actively cooling the microplate and a controller set up to control activity of the heating and cooling devices in a manner to heat the sealing cover so as to thermally fix it to the microplate and to actively cool the microplate so as to keep a temperature of the samples below a predefined temperature when heating the sealing cover. It further relates to a method for automatically sealing a microplate in which the thermally fusible sealing cover is disposed over the microplate, the sealing cover is heated to thermally fix it to the microplate and the microplate is actively cooled in a manner that a temperature of the liquid reaction mixtures is kept below a predefined temperature when heating the sealing cover.

Instrument and method for automatically heat-sealing a microplate

Disclosed herein are methods for monitoring a thermoelectric heating and cooling device () of a system () for cycling liquid reaction mixtures through a series of temperature excursions, and such systems adapted to perform these methods. A first quantity being either an electric current or an electric voltage is applied to the heating and cooling device () or a portion () thereof (), and a second quantity being either the non-selected first quantity or temperature is measured to obtain a first test value. The selected first quantity is applied to another thermoelectric heating and cooling device () or another portion () of the first device (), and the second quantity is measured to obtain a second test value. Comparison of the first and second test values yields a monitoring value which is compared with a pre-defined threshold value to obtain a monitoring result.

System and methods for monitoring a thermoelectric heating and cooling device

The invention relates to a thermocycler module for heating and/or cooling of a thermocycling device comprising a thermal switch, a heating block and a heat sink. The thermal switch comprises a thermoconducting liquid, e.g. a magnetic fluid or a liquid metal, and a stimulating unit, e.g. a magnetic unit or a Lorentz-force unit, for moving the thermoconducting liquid. The movement of the thermoconducting liquid provides, in an on-state of the thermal switch, a thermal connection between the heating block and the heat sink.

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Winterhur, Switzerland

Daniel Bommer