CN217639122U - Automatic change micro-fluidic chip analytical equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model provides a high-flux automatic micro-fluidic chip analysis device, which comprises a mounting substrate; the sample loading assembly, the disc loading assembly and the sample injection assembly are arranged on one side of the mounting substrate, wherein the disc loading assembly can move among a new disc storage position, an old disc storage position and a disc working position; the imaging assembly, the consumable recovery assembly and the sealing oil assembly are arranged on the opposite sides of the mounting substrate, wherein the imaging assembly corresponds to the working position of the disc, and the consumable recovery assembly corresponds to the position of the loading assembly; a sample application and pipetting assembly above the mounting substrate, the sample application and pipetting assembly being movable between a sample loading assembly and a disk operating position; and a control system under the mounting substrate for controlling an automated operation program of the apparatus. The equipment realizes full-automatic operations of disc loading, sampling, mixing, sample adding, oil sealing, imaging and the like, the analysis process does not need manual intervention, the working efficiency is greatly improved, and high-throughput analysis becomes possible.

Description

Automatic change micro-fluidic chip analytical equipment

Technical Field

The utility model relates to an automatic analytical equipment for micro-fluidic chip especially is used for disc micro-fluidic chip's automatic analytical equipment.

Background

The microfluidic chip can be used in important application fields such as biomedicine, new drug synthesis and screening, food inspection, environmental monitoring and the like. The application of microfluidic technology in the field of bioanalysis mainly focuses on nucleic acid separation and quantification, DNA sequencing, gene mutation, gene differential expression analysis, single molecule detection, single cell analysis and the like. Microfluidic technology uses only a few microliters to tens of microliters of analytical sample, and the concentration of the substance being analyzed can be as low as picomolar or femtomolar.

The analysis process of microfluidic chips generally involves chip loading, sample loading, oil sealing, imaging, analysis, result output, etc., each process involves various mechanical, optical, and/or electronic configurations and requires precise coordination among each other. Existing microfluidic devices are mostly semi-automated in form, where one or more subsystems are automated, while others require manual intervention. However, the work efficiency of the semi-automatic microfluidic device is necessarily limited by the efficiency of manual intervention, and as the sample size to be analyzed is larger and larger, the work efficiency of the device is higher and higher, and the semi-automatic form cannot meet the market demand.

In view of the above, there is a need in the art for an improved microfluidic chip analysis device that overcomes the above-mentioned deficiencies of the prior art.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

The utility model provides an automatic micro-fluidic chip analysis device, which comprises a mounting substrate; the sample loading assembly, the disk loading assembly and the sample injection assembly are arranged on one side of the mounting substrate, the sample injection assembly is positioned between the sample loading assembly and the disk loading assembly, the disk loading assembly can move among a new disk storage position, an old disk storage position and a disk working position, and the sample injection assembly is used for injecting samples into a chip disk at the disk working position; an imaging assembly, a consumable recovery assembly, and a sealing oil assembly disposed at opposite sides of the mounting substrate, wherein the imaging assembly corresponds to the disc working position, and the consumable recovery assembly corresponds to a position of the sample loading assembly; a sample application and pipetting assembly which is arranged above the mounting substrate and can move between the sample loading assembly and the disc working position; and a control system disposed below the mounting substrate for controlling an automated operation procedure of the apparatus.

In some embodiments, the sample application and pipetting assembly is movable in the x and z directions and the sample loading assembly is movable in the y direction.

In some embodiments, the sample application and pipetting assembly comprises: an x-direction driver and an x-direction guide rail; a z-direction driver and a z-direction guide rail arranged on the x-direction guide rail; a pipette disposed on the z-guide rail.

In some embodiments, the sample loading assembly comprises: a y-direction driver and a y-direction guide rail; a carrier plate disposed on the y-direction guide rail; a consumable fixing frame and a sample orifice plate which are arranged on the support plate. In some embodiments, the consumable retaining clip and the sample well plate are removably mounted on the carrier plate.

In some embodiments, the consumable recovery assembly includes a recovery container, a holder, and a magnetic sensor disposed on the holder, the magnetic sensor providing in-situ detection of the recovery container.

In some embodiments, the disc loading assembly includes a rocker arm; the sucker is arranged at one end of the rocker arm rod; a rotating shaft arranged at the other end of the rocker arm rod; the vertical movement assembly is used for driving the rocker arm rod to vertically move; and a rotary motion assembly for driving the rocker arm lever to perform rotary motion.

In some embodiments, the new disk storage locations, the old disk storage locations, and the disk operating locations are distributed on a circle centered on the rotational shaft and having a radius of the rocker arm lever.

In some embodiments, the disk loading assembly further comprises a chip tray in-out bin assembly, the new disk storage locations and the old disk storage locations being disposed on the chip tray in-out bin assembly.

In some embodiments, the sealing oil assembly comprises a sealing oil reservoir and a sample addition pump, the sample addition pump and the sealing oil reservoir being in fluid communication with the sample introduction assembly.

The utility model provides an automatic change micro-fluidic chip analytical equipment has realized full automatic operation such as disc loading, sample, mixing, application of sample, oil blanket, formation of image, and the analytic process need not artifical the intervention, has greatly improved the work efficiency of equipment for high flux analysis becomes possible.

Drawings

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the illustrated embodiments are merely representative examples of the embodiments of the present invention, and in order to more clearly explain the details of the exemplary embodiments, the elements in the drawings are not drawn to scale, the number of actual elements may vary, the relative positional relationship of the actual elements substantially coincides with that shown, and some elements are not shown. Where there are multiple embodiments, where one or more features that have been described in a previous embodiment may also be applicable to another embodiment, for the sake of brevity these repeatedly applicable features will not be described again in the following embodiment or embodiments, which should be understood as having described these repeatedly applicable features unless stated otherwise. One skilled in the art will recognize, upon reading the present disclosure, that one or more features shown in one drawing may be combined with one or more features in another drawing to create one or more alternative embodiments that are not specifically illustrated in the drawing, and which also form a part of the present disclosure.

Fig. 1 shows a front perspective view of an exemplary automated microfluidic chip analysis device.

Fig. 2 schematically shows a rear perspective view of the exemplary analysis apparatus shown in fig. 1.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a sample application and pipetting assembly that can be used in an exemplary analytical apparatus.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a consumable recovery assembly that can be used in an exemplary assay device.

FIG. 5 shows a top view of a sample loading assembly that can be used with an exemplary analytical device.

FIG. 6 shows a bottom view of a sample loading assembly that can be used with an exemplary analytical apparatus.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a disk loading assembly that may be used in an exemplary analytical apparatus.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic of a chip tray access assembly that can be used in an exemplary analytical apparatus.

Detailed Description

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood that the scope of the present invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but that modifications and variations may be made to the exemplary embodiments without undue experimentation by those skilled in the art, in light of the teaching of the present invention, and are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.

Fig. 1 shows a front perspective view of an automated microfluidic chip analysis device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and fig. 2 shows a rear perspective view of the device. As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the apparatus includes a mounting substrate 15 as a main working platform of the analysis apparatus on which operations such as chip loading, sample application, oil sealing, and the like are performed. As described in detail below, the various components of the apparatus are mounted on a substrate 15.

The sample loading assembly 4, the disk loading assembly 3, and the sample introduction assembly 2 between the sample loading assembly 4 and the disk loading assembly 3 are disposed on one side of the mounting substrate 15. The disk loading assembly 3 can move among a new disk storage position 301, an old disk storage position 302 and a disk working position 303, and the sample injection assembly 2 injects samples to the chip disk in the disk working position 303.

An imaging assembly 5, a consumable recovery assembly 7 and a sealing oil assembly 6 are disposed on the other side of the mounting substrate 15, wherein the imaging assembly 5 corresponds to the disk working position 303 to acquire an image and/or a signal of a chip disk at the position, and the consumable recovery assembly 7 corresponds to the sample loading assembly 4 to recover a consumable (e.g., a disposable pipetting head) of the sample loading assembly 4.

The apparatus also includes a sample application and pipetting assembly 1 disposed above the mounting substrate 15 and movable between the sample loading assembly 4 and the disk work position 302 to mix and transfer the substrate, sample to the application wells of the chip tray at the disk work position 302.

The apparatus further comprises a control system 16, arranged below the mounting substrate 15, for controlling an automated operating program of the apparatus. The control system 16 may include a control board 9, a host 10 communicatively connected thereto, and a power supply 13. The control system 16 may be disposed on the base plate 12, for example, and the base plate 12 may also provide support for the imaging assembly 5. The control system 16 is communicatively connected (e.g., wired or wirelessly) to the sample loading assembly 4, the disk loading assembly 3, the sample introduction assembly 2, the imaging assembly 5, the seal oil assembly 6, etc. of the apparatus to receive and transmit control signals. The host 10 may include image analysis and output software to process and analyze the images acquired by the imaging assembly 5 and output the results of the analysis in a predetermined program.

In this embodiment, sample application and pipetting assembly 1 is capable of moving in the x and z directions, while sample loading assembly 4 is capable of moving in the y direction. Such an arrangement of this embodiment enables the sample adding and pipetting assembly 1 to cooperate with the sample loading assembly 4, thereby increasing the sampling, mixing and sample adding rates and contributing to the improvement of the operating efficiency of the apparatus, as opposed to relying solely on the movement of the sample adding and pipetting assembly 1 in the x, y and z directions.

The sample application and pipetting module 1 is mounted on a frame holder 8 extending vertically from a bottom plate 12 and disposed above a mounting substrate 15. Fig. 3 schematically shows details of the construction of the sample application and pipetting assembly 1. As shown in fig. 3, the sample application and pipetting assembly 1 comprises an x-direction driver 102 and an x-direction rail 105; a z-driver 112 and a z-guide rail 109 provided on the x-guide rail 105; and a pipette 113 disposed on the z-guide rail 109. The x-drive 102 drives the pipettor 113 to move along the x-guide 105 so as to be movable between the sample loading assembly 4 and the disk working position 303. The z-direction driver 112 drives the pipettor 113 to move along the z-direction guide rail 109, so that operations such as sampling, mixing and sample adding can be realized.

For example, the x-direction driver 102 is fixed to the fixed plate 101, and is connected to the driving pulley 103, the timing belt 104, and the driven pulley 116 (fig. 1), and the timing belt 104 is fixedly connected to the slider 106, and drives the slider holder 107 fixed to the slider 106 to move linearly along the x-direction linear guide 105. Alternatively, a photosensor 108 may be provided on the slider holder 107, and the position in the x direction may be detected by the photosensor 108. A z-drive 112 (e.g., a lead screw motor) drives the slider and vertical mounting block assembly 111 to move vertically and linearly along the z-linear guide 109. The z-guide rail 109 may be disposed on a vertical base plate 110, and the vertical base plate 110 is disposed on the slider holder 107, so that the z-direction and x-direction movements may be interlocked. Pipettor 113 is fixed in pipettor mounting panel 114, and then is fixed in slider and perpendicular mounting block subassembly 111. The pipettes 113 may thus move along the z-direction linear track 109 and the x-direction linear track 105.

Fig. 5 and 6 schematically show a top view and a bottom view, respectively, of a sample loading assembly 4 of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention. The sample loading assembly 4 comprises a y-direction drive 401 and a y-direction rail 419; a carrier plate 418 disposed on the y-guide rail; and a consumable holder 416 and a sample well plate 412 disposed on a carrier plate 418. The carrier plate 418 can be placed with the consumable holder 416 (e.g., the disposable pipette head holder 416), the sample well plate 412, and the substrate bottle 414, the disposable pipette head holder 416 can be positioned by a positioning pin (not shown), the pipette head fixing block 415, and the elastic card 417, and the sample well plate 412 can be positioned by the well plate fixing seat 413, the well plate fixing block 410, and the elastic card 411, so that the consumable holder 416 and the sample well plate 412 can be detachably connected with the carrier plate 418. The carrier plate 418, the consumable holder 416 and the sample well plate 412 disposed thereon can move along the y-direction guide rail, so as to cooperate with the pipettor 113 moving along the z-direction linear rail 109 and the x-direction linear rail 105 to realize operations such as sampling, mixing, sample adding, and the like.

For example, a y-direction driver 401 (e.g., a motor) of the base 402 is connected to the driving pulley 403, the timing belt 404 and the driven pulley 408, and drives the timing belt 404 to move, the timing belt 404 drives the transmission block 406 to move, and the transmission block 406 drives the carrier 418 to move along the y-direction guide rail 419 in the y-direction. The motor tensioner 420 may be provided on the mounting substrate 15 for adjusting the center-to-center distance of the timing belt 404 during the mounting process. Further, the position of the sample loading block 4 in the y direction can be detected by providing the sensor sheet 421 and the photosensor 422 on the mounting substrate 15.

As shown in fig. 6, the sealing oil assembly 6 may be fixed to the mounting substrate 15 and located below the mounting substrate 15. The sealing oil assembly 6 may include an oil bottle seat 602, an oil bottle 601 disposed on the oil bottle seat 602, and a photoelectric liquid level sensor 603, wherein the oil bottle 601 may store sealing oil, and the photoelectric liquid level sensor 603 may be configured to detect a liquid level of the sealing oil and send a prompt signal when the liquid level is lower than a threshold liquid level. In one embodiment, the sealed oil assembly 6 can further comprise a sample addition pump (not shown), and the sample addition pump and the oil bottle 601 can be in fluid communication with the sample introduction assembly 2.

Figure 4 shows a consumable recovery assembly 7 that may be used with the apparatus of one embodiment of the invention. For example, the consumable recycling component 7 is used to recycle the used disposable pipetting head 115, and may include a recycling container 702, a fixing frame 701, and a magnetic sensor 703 disposed on the fixing frame 701, wherein the magnetic sensor 703 may be used to detect whether the recycling container 702 is in place.

As shown in fig. 7, in one embodiment, the disk loading assembly 3 may include a rocker lever 304; a suction cup 305 provided at one end of the rocker lever 304; a rotary shaft 306 provided at the other end of the rocker lever 304; a vertical movement assembly 308 for driving the rotary shaft 306 (and thus the rocker lever 304) to perform vertical movement; and a rotational movement assembly 307 for driving the rotational shaft 306 (and thus the rocker lever 304) to perform a rotational movement. In this embodiment, the new disk storage position 301, the old disk storage position 302, and the disk operating position 303 are distributed on a circle centered on the rotational shaft 306 and having a radius of the rocker lever 304, so that the rotation of the rocker lever 304 can be freely switched among the respective positions.

As shown in fig. 8, in one embodiment, the disc loading assembly 3 may further include a chip disc access assembly 31, and the new disc storage location 301 and the old disc storage location 302 are disposed on the chip disc access assembly 31. The new disk storage locations 203 and the old disk storage locations 302 are set on the disk tray 312 of the chip tray in-and-out magazine assembly 31. When the disk tray 312 is located inside the apparatus, the motor 310 is started to operate, the gear 316 is driven to rotate, the gear 316 is matched with the rack 317, and the rack 317 is fixedly connected with the disk tray 312 to drive the disk tray 312 to move outwards. In order to better control the moving direction of the disk tray 312, the bottom of the disk tray 312 may be provided with a linear guide 318, and the mounting substrate 15 is provided with a slider 319, and the slider 319 is engaged with the linear guide 318. Similarly, when the disc tray 312 is located at the external position of the apparatus, the motor 310 is started to operate, the gear 316 is driven to rotate, the gear 316 is matched with the rack 317, the disc tray 312 is driven to move towards the inside of the apparatus, and when the sensor sensing piece 315 is sensed by the bin discharging sensor 320, the motor 310 stops moving.

In the above embodiment, the suction cup 305 and the sample introduction assembly 2 may be connected to a negative pressure generation device (e.g. the vacuum pump 14) to generate a negative pressure of a specific strength. For example, the vacuum pump 14 may be communicatively connected to the control system 16. Furthermore, pipette 113 may be connected to pipetting pump 11 (fig. 2), for example, by a pipette rod of pipette 113 being connected to pipetting pump 11 to effect aspiration and aspiration of pipette 113.

The workflow of the apparatus of this embodiment is summarized as follows. Sample adding and pipetting assembly 1 and sample loading assembly 4 realize XYZ axis motion (sample adding and pipetting assembly 1 realizes X and Z direction motion, and sample loading assembly 4 realizes Y direction motion), pipettor 113 sucks disposable pipetting head 115 from disposable pipetting head frame 416, sucks substrate from substrate bottle 414 on support plate 418, and fills the substrate into corresponding holes of sample hole plate 412, and the mixing of sample and substrate is realized through the sucking and spitting of pipettor 113, and pipettor 113 sucks the mixed sample afterwards, and loads into the chip disc sample inlet corresponding to chip disc working position 303. And the sample loading, oil sealing and other experimental processes are completed through the sample feeding device 2. The imaging assembly 5 performs fluorescence imaging of the chip portions of the chip tray that have been loaded. The picture results are analyzed by the computer software of the host 10 in the control system 16 to obtain experimental results. When the pipetting head 115 needs to be discarded, the pipettor 113 moves to the consumable recovery assembly 7 to eject the pipetting head 115 and drop the pipettor 115 into the recovery container 702 of the pipetting head recovery assembly 7.

The foregoing is representative of embodiments of the present invention and is provided for illustrative purposes only. The present invention contemplates that one or more technical features used in one embodiment may be added to another embodiment to form an improved or alternative embodiment without departing from the purpose of the embodiments. Likewise, one or more features used in one embodiment may be omitted or substituted without departing from the purpose of the embodiment, to form alternative or simplified embodiments. Furthermore, one or more features used in one embodiment may be combined with one or more features of another embodiment to form an improved or alternative embodiment without departing from the purpose of the embodiments. The present invention is intended to include all such improved, alternative and simplified solutions.

Claims (10)

1. An automatic microfluidic chip analysis device is characterized by comprising

A mounting substrate;

the sample loading assembly, the disk loading assembly and the sample injection assembly are arranged on one side of the mounting substrate, the sample injection assembly is positioned between the sample loading assembly and the disk loading assembly, the disk loading assembly can move among a new disk storage position, an old disk storage position and a disk working position, and the sample injection assembly is used for injecting samples into a chip disk at the disk working position;

an imaging assembly, a consumable recovery assembly, and a sealing oil assembly disposed at opposite sides of the mounting substrate, wherein the imaging assembly corresponds to the disc working position, and the consumable recovery assembly corresponds to a position of the sample loading assembly;

a sample application and pipetting assembly which is arranged above the mounting substrate and can move between the sample loading assembly and the disc working position; and

a control system disposed below the mounting substrate for controlling an automated operation procedure of the apparatus.

2. The automated microfluidic chip analysis apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sample application and pipetting assembly is movable in x and z directions and the sample loading assembly is movable in y direction.

3. The automated microfluidic chip analysis apparatus of claim 2, wherein the sample application pipetting assembly comprises: an x-direction driver and an x-direction guide rail; a z-direction driver and a z-direction guide rail arranged on the x-direction guide rail; a pipette disposed on the z-guide rail.

4. The automated microfluidic chip analysis device according to claim 3, wherein the sample loading assembly comprises: a y-direction driver and a y-direction guide rail; a carrier plate disposed on the y-direction guide rail; a consumable fixing frame and a sample orifice plate which are arranged on the support plate.

5. The automated microfluidic chip analysis device according to claim 4, wherein the consumable holder and the sample well plate are detachably mounted on the carrier plate.

6. The automated microfluidic chip analysis device according to claim 1, wherein the consumable recovery assembly comprises a recovery container, a fixing frame and a magnetic sensor arranged on the fixing frame, and the magnetic sensor provides in-situ detection of the recovery container.

7. The automated microfluidic chip analysis device of claim 1, wherein the disk loading assembly comprises a rocker arm lever; the sucker is arranged at one end of the rocker arm rod; a rotating shaft arranged at the other end of the rocker arm rod; the vertical motion assembly is used for driving the rotating shaft and the rocker arm rod to vertically move; and the rotary motion assembly is used for driving the rotating shaft and the rocker arm rod to perform rotary motion.

8. The automated microfluidic chip analysis apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the new disc storage locations, the old disc storage locations and the disc working locations are distributed on a circle centered on the rotating shaft and having a radius of the rocker arm lever.

9. The automated microfluidic chip analysis apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the disk loading assembly further comprises a chip disk in-out cartridge assembly, the new disk storage location and the old disk storage location being disposed on the chip disk in-out cartridge assembly.

10. The automated microfluidic chip analysis device according to claim 1, wherein the sealing oil assembly comprises a sealing oil reservoir and a sample pump, the sample pump and the sealing oil reservoir being in fluid communication with the sample introduction assembly.

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