| abstract |
The invention relates to an electrically controllable micro pipette for handling the smallest fluid volumes in the range from a few hundred pl to a few μl. The micro pipette enables the absorption of fluids, fluid mixtures or the microparticles they may contain, their removal into the interior of complex systems and the targeted delivery of the absorbed substances to the site for further processing or sample waste.n n n The electrically controllable micro pipette consists of a micromembrane pump filled with an inert carrier liquid and used as a micro ejection pump (2), which is made up of a microtechnologically manufactured chamber (7) with an elastic chamber wall (14) that has an electrically controllable actuator (12), the Micro outlet capillary (4) is designed as a pipette tip.n n n The electrically controllable micro-pipette according to the invention is produced by means of the technologies of microsystem technology, it can be integrated as a hybrid structure from several individual chips to form the micro-pipette system, or it can also be compactly integrated in only one silicon chip. Basically, both manufacturing alternatives are suitable for mass production and are characterized by extremely high accuracy and reproducibility. Depending on the application, the use of the micro-pipette according to the invention leads to a reduction in the dead volume or the media consumption. Due to the lack of mechanically moving parts, it is extremely reliable and requires no maintenance. |