The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 03, 2005
Filed:
Feb. 15, 2000
Charles S. Vann, Burlingame, CA (US);
Dennis Lehto, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Charles S. Vann, Burlingame, CA (US);
Dennis Lehto, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Applera Corporation, Foster City, CA (US);
Abstract
A bead dispensing system is provided for delivering small amounts of substances onto substrates. The system can include, for example, a movable support structure having an array of spaced-apart projections depending from its lower side. An attraction source, such as a vacuum, magnetic, and/or electrostatic force, is operable at each projection end region to attract and retain one bead. The projection array can be aligned with an array of bead-receiving regions of a substrate, e.g., an array of spaced-apart wells of a micro-plate or card. In one embodiment, a plurality of reagent-carrying beads are picked up, retained at respective projection end regions, and moved to a location over a multi-well plate. The beads are then released in a fashion permitting each bead to land in a respective well. The system of the invention is particularly useful for fabricating arrays of reagents.