Pneumatic-Driven Picolitre Dispenser Array for High-Throughput Biomaterials Characterization

Abstract

Picolitre pipetting plays a critical role in micro-biology and material science because of its ability to deliver precise volumes of multiple chemicals and reagents into well plates for subsequent analysis. The purpose of this paper is to develop a microfluidic liquid handler, picolitre dispenser array, which can dispense picolitre droplets of biomaterials containing cells, particles, and protein etc. A pneumatically controlled nozzle array provides high-throughput parallel ejection of liquid and enables dispensing. A flow inside channels was observed with transparent structure of a nozzle array, and the ejection was controlled by the integration of a pneumatic channel. A nozzle array was placed on a well plate with customized stages and the dispensing of liquid was characterized by changing a pneumatic pressure.