Tecan Trading Ag

S Nicholas Reimitz

Bruce J Richardson

Anne R Kopf-Sill

Travis Lee

Marc Nathan Feiglin

Tiffany Lay

A cartridge manipulates samples in liquid droplets with an electrode array when a working film is placed on the array. The cartridge has a body with lower surface and wells to hold samples, each with a bottom opening to release liquid. A piercable bottom structure seals the bottom openings. A working film below the body has a hydrophobic upper surface. A peripheral spacer connects the working film to the body and forms a gap is between the body and surface. A top piercing system located in at least one of the wells has a piston and a piercing element, the piston being movable in the well and the piercing element piercing the piercable bottom structure for releasing a sample from a well into the gap.

Cartridge and system for manipulating samples in liquid droplets

A disposable cartridge had body, bottom layer with first hydrophobic surface, top layer with a second hydrophobic surface, and gap between. The bottom layer is a flexible film sealingly attached at its circumference to the top layer. No spacer is between the layers. The top layer has loading sites for transferring processing liquids into the gap. In use, the bottom layer is a working film for manipulating samples in liquid droplets and is placed on an electrode array of a digital microfluidics system having base unit with cartridge accommodation site and electrode array at the site. The electrode array is supported by a bottom substrate that extends in a first plane and has individual electrodes. The system also includes a central control unit for controlling selection of the electrodes and for providing these electrodes with individual voltage pulses for manipulating liquid droplets within the gap by electrowetting.

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Campbell, CA, United States of America

S Nicholas Reimitz