Summary
United States Patent 6,101,946

Martinsky, August 15, 2000

Microarray printing device including printing pins with flat tips and exterior channel and method of manufacture

Abstract

The invention herein describes a device for fabricating microarrays of biochemical substances, consisting of a holder and one or more printing pins. The holder contains apertures with regular spacing that define the location of one or more printing pins during the printing process. The tip of each printing pin contains a sample channel that holds a predetermined volume of biological or chemical sample and a point that is machined to precision with an electronic discharge machine (EDM). The device can be attached to a motion control system for precise and automated movement in three dimensions. The flat tips of the pins are immersed in a biochemical sample such that a predefined volume of sample fills the sample channel of each pin. The holder and pins are then moved in proximity to a printing substrate whereby direct contact between the flat tips of the pins and the surface results in the transfer of a small amount of the sample onto the solid surface. The holder and pins are mass produced at high precision to ensure that the printed elements in the resultant microarray contains approximately the same quantity of sample. In one preferred embodiment, the device is employed to manufacture arrays of nucleic acids or derivatives thereof.

Inventors: Martinsky; Richard S (San Jose, CA)

Assignee: TeleChem International Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA)

Appl. No.: 191935

Filed: November 13, 1998

Primary Examiner: Hilten; John S.

Assistant Examiner: Colilla; Dan

Attorney, Agent or Firm: Skjerven, Morrill, MacPherson, Franklin and Friel

This is a continuation of Provisional patent 70014 U.S. PTO 60/066,733 filed on Nov. 21, 1997 with the title "ChipMaker".

Claim 1 of 10

What is claimed is:

1. A device for printing microarrays comprising:

a holder; and one or more printing pins that are mounted in said holder, each of said one or more printing pins having an exterior sample channel for holding a predetermined volume of a sample and a flat tip.

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a specialized device for printing microarrays of biochemical substances.

Electronic Manuscript
http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u =/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%276,101,946%27.WKU.&OS=PN/6,101,946&RS=PN/ 6,101,946