| abstract |
The object of the invention is to design a method and an ex situ biochip fabrication machine of a few hundred to a few thousand probes, with a high manufacturing speed, a good reproducibility of operation with regular networks of microdroplets or pads formed on at least one substrate (18) carried by a movable platen (25).n n n To this end, the method according to the invention consists in using a battery of independent microprojection devices (D) to project microdroplets of reagents, each microprojection device being equipped with a reagent reservoir (1) maintained under pressure of a source (5) of gas, with an ejection nozzle (14), and with an actuator (10) interposed between the reservoir and the ejection nozzle. More specifically, the method consists, before the manufacture of the chips, in performing a calibration operation of weighing the microvolume projected by each actuator, and, during the manufacture of the chips, to vary the microvolume of the reagent projected by playing on the gas pressure and / or the opening time of the actuator so as to compensate for the dispersions of the projected microvolumes. |