JP2008191091A - Droplet application device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a droplet application device capable of exactly applying fine droplets to an object to be applied without contacting an application needle to the object to be applied. <P>SOLUTION: When the application needle with droplets produced at a top end thereof lowers at a setting position, the setting position is detected and then lowering of the application needle is stopped. This realizes the droplet application device capable of precisely applying droplets to the object to be applied, without contacting the application needle to the object to be applied. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a droplet coating apparatus, and in particular, intends to allow minute droplets to be accurately coated on a coating target.

  Conventionally, a sample liquid containing cells and the like is arrayed and applied as fine droplets onto a substrate to be applied, and the microarray thus formed is used for culturing or improving a living body.

As a method for forming this microarray, a pin member having a tapered tip is inserted into the liquid holding tube, and the tip of the pin member is brought into contact with the substrate to be coated, whereby the liquid adhered to the tip of the pin member. Has been proposed in which a liquid is applied as a droplet to a coating target (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).
Japanese Patent No. 3299212 JP 2001-46062 A

  However, since this type of conventional droplet coating apparatus presses the tip of the pin member against the coating surface to be coated, a large amount of sample liquid flows in the pressed state, or the needle tip of the pin member that comes into contact Bends or damages the application surface to be applied.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and an attempt is made to propose a droplet coating apparatus capable of accurately coating minute droplets on a coating target without bringing the coating needle into contact with the coating target. To do.

  In order to solve this problem, the present invention has a liquid application apparatus main body 2 that applies the droplet LQ to the application target 5 by lowering the application needle 11 through the application liquid storage member 9 that stores the application liquid. In the droplet applying apparatus 1, it is confirmed that the coating needle 11 that has dropped from the coating solution storage member 9 and generated the droplet LQ at the tip has dropped to the dimension stop position immediately before the droplet LQ contacts the application target 5. Needle lowering detection means 21 for detecting, and dimension stopping means SP10 for applying the droplet LQ to the application object 5 and stopping the lowering operation of the application needle 11 by the detection output S11 of the needle lowering detection means 21 are provided. .

  According to the present invention, when the application needle that has generated a droplet at the tip is lowered to the dimension stop position, this is detected and the descent of the liquid application needle is stopped. It is possible to realize a liquid droplet applying apparatus that can accurately apply liquid droplets to an application target without being brought into contact with the liquid.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(1) Overall Configuration In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a droplet coating apparatus as a whole, which has a droplet coating apparatus main body 2 that forms a microarray by sequentially coating droplets on a substrate to be coated.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the droplet coating apparatus main body 2 places a coating substrate 5 on which a microarray is to be formed on an XY stage 4 disposed on a fixed base 3, and applies the coating. A Z stage 6 is provided so as to face the surface of the substrate 5 from above.

  In the case of this embodiment, the XY stage 4 has an X stage portion 4A positioned at a predetermined position of the fixed base 3, and the Y stage portion 4B with the X stage portion 4A mounted on the upper surface is moved in the X-axis direction. The Y stage unit 4B is moved, and the coating substrate 5 mounted on the upper surface is moved in the Y-axis direction, whereby the position of the coating substrate 5 on the XY plane with respect to the Z stage 6 can be sequentially positioned. .

  The Z stage 6 has a coarse movement stage portion 6A attached to a gantry 8 provided so as to extend upward on the fixed base 3, and is fixed to the fixed portion 6A1 fixed to the gantry 8 of the coarse movement stage 6A. The fixed portion 6B1 of the fine movement stage portion 6B is fixed to the sliding portion 6A2 that slides in the Z-axis direction, so that the coarse movement stage portion 6A descends the moving stage portion 6B at a rough pitch in the Z-axis direction. Raise.

  A pipette holding member 10 that holds a glass pipette 9 that constitutes a coating liquid holding member is attached to the sliding portion 6A2 of the coarse movement stage portion 6A so as to protrude downward, whereby the pipette 9 is finely moved. Along with the fixed portion 6B1 of the stage portion 6B, the stage portion 6B is lowered or raised in the Z-axis direction at a rough pitch in the Z-axis direction.

  An application needle 11 as a droplet applying member is attached to the sliding portion 6B2 of the fine movement stage portion 6B so as to be along the Z-axis direction, whereby the sliding portion 6B2 of the fine movement stage 6B slides with respect to the fixed portion 6B1. When moving, the application needle 11 passes through the pipette 9 along the Z-axis direction and descends or rises at a predetermined speed.

  Thus, as shown in FIG. 4A, in the state where the sliding portion 6B2 of the fine movement stage 6B is in the reference position where the sliding operation is not performed, the sliding portion 6A2 of the coarse movement stage portion 6A is in the droplet application operation position. The tip of the application needle 11 projects downward from the tip of the pipette 9.

  In this state, the tip of the application needle 11 is drawn into the pipette 9 by the sliding portion 6B2 of the fine movement stage 6B sliding upward as shown by the arrow a in FIG. become.

  In this state, when the sliding portion 6B2 of the fine movement stage 6B is lowered below the reference position (4 (A)) as indicated by an arrow b in FIG. 4 (C), the tip of the application needle 11 is moved to the pipette 9. It will be in the state which protrudes below through the coating liquid accommodated in the inside.

  At this time, when the tip surface of the application needle 11 and the peripheral surface in the vicinity thereof protrude downward from the inside of the pipette 9, the application liquid stored in the pipette 9 is drawn downward to protrude downward. A droplet LQ is generated at the tip of the substrate and applied onto the coating substrate 5.

  In this state, when the sliding portion 6B2 of the fine movement stage 6B slides upward and returns to the reference position as shown by an arrow c in FIG. 4D, the droplet applying operation of the droplet applying apparatus body 2 is performed. The one-round operation ends.

  4 (A) to 4 (D) of the droplet applying apparatus main body 2 is performed in accordance with the Z stage control signal S1 sent from the stage control unit 15 (FIG. 1). 6A and fine movement stage unit 6B are driven and controlled.

  4A to 4D, the XY stage 4 is controlled by the XY stage control signal S2 sent from the stage control unit 15, so that the X stage 4A and the Y stage 4B are applied. The application substrate 5 is sequentially positioned with respect to the application needle 11 so as to form a microarray formed by applying n rows and m columns of droplets LQ on the substrate 5.

  The stage control unit 15 is controlled by the system control unit 16 having a personal computer configuration based on input data S3 input by the user from the data input unit 17 and descent position data S4 obtained from the application needle descent position detecting device 21. Is done.

(2) Application needle lowering position detection device The application needle lowering position detection device 21 is configured such that when the application needle 11 of the droplet application apparatus body 2 is lowered with respect to the application substrate 5, the user input from the data input unit 17 is performed. In accordance with the content of the instruction, when the user selects the “needle contact mode”, control is performed to detect that the needle tip of the application needle 11 has come into contact with the surface of the application substrate 5 and to perform a droplet application operation. At the same time, when the user selects the “dimming mode”, the tip of the application needle 11 drops to the position where the droplet LQ is applied close to the surface of the coating substrate 5 (this is referred to as a dimensioning position). Control is performed to detect this and stop the descent and perform a droplet application operation (this operation is called a dimension stop operation).

  Detection of whether or not the application needle 11 has contacted the application substrate 5 and whether or not the application needle 11 has been lowered to the dimension stop position are detected by the application needle lowering detection device 21 having the configuration shown in FIGS. To do.

  The application needle drop detecting device 21 applies a laser beam radiating element 21A that emits a projection laser beam L1 toward a projection point P1 facing the tip surface of the application needle 11 on the application substrate 5, and an application of the projection laser beam L1. A laser beam element 21B that receives the reflected light L2 from the substrate 5;

  In the case of this embodiment, the laser light emitting element 21A and the reflected light receiving element 21B are mounted on the pipette holding member 10 at a position sandwiching the tip of the pipette 9 as shown in FIGS. In a state where the sliding portion 6A2 of the stage portion 6A slides downward and the sliding portion 6B2 of the fine movement stage 6B performs the droplet application operation shown in FIGS. 4A to 4D, the laser light emitting element 21A projects the projection laser. It is set so that the light L1 can be projected onto the projection point P1 of the coated substrate 5.

  Thus, when the coating needle 11 is raised on the virtual line K1 extending in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the coating substrate 5 through the projection point P1 on the coating substrate 5, the projection laser of the laser light emitting element 21A The light L1 is incident on the virtual line K1 at the incident angle θ1, and the reflected light L2 is reflected on the virtual line K1 at the reflection angle θ1.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the reflected light receiving element 21B has a U-V detection plane having orthogonal coordinate axes U and V, and when the reflected light L2 is incident on the origin (U0, V0), the detection output S11. As a result, a voltage output of (U = 0 [V], V = 0 [V]) is generated.

  On the other hand, when the incident position of the reflected light L2 deviates on the U axis in the direction of the positive detection limit point (U1, V0), the reflected light receiving element 21B outputs the detected output S11 (U = 0 to +10 [V , V = 0 [V]).

  Similarly, when the incident position of the reflected light L2 deviates on the U axis in the direction of the negative limit point (−U1, V0), the detection output S11 is (U = 0 to −10 [V], V = 0 [ V]) is output, and when the incident position of the reflected light L2 deviates on the V axis in the direction of the positive detection limit point (U0, + V1), the detection output S11 (U = 0 [V], V = + 10 [V]) is output, and when the incident position of the reflected light L2 deviates on the V axis to the negative detection limit point (U0, -V1), the detection output S11 (U = 0 [V]) , V = −10 [V]).

  As a result, when the incident position of the reflected light L2 shifts from the origin (U0, V0) to any one of the coordinate positions (−U1 to + U1, −V1 to + V1), the reflected light receiving element 11B shifts the shifted coordinates. The voltage output corresponding to the position (U = −10 to +10 [V], V = −10 to +10 [V]) is sent as the detection output S11.

  When the coating needle 11 of the droplet coating apparatus main body 2 performs the droplet coating operation as described above with reference to FIG. 4 with respect to the reflected light receiving element 21B having such a configuration, FIGS. As shown in FIG. 5, when the application needle 11 is largely separated upward from the application substrate 5 in the state before droplet formation, the projection laser light L1 of the laser light emitting element 21A is directly as shown in FIG. The reflected light L2 is reflected at the same reflection angle θ1 as the incident angle θ1 of the laser light L1 by projecting onto the projection position P1 of the coated substrate 5, so that the reflected light L2 is reflected light receiving element 21B as shown in FIG. Enters the origin position (U0, V0), and the reflected light image Z1 is generated.

  At this time, the descent position data S4 sent from the signal processing circuit 21D represents the origin position (U0, V0), and when the descent position data S4 is taken into the system control unit 16, the system control unit 16 applies the coating. It can be seen that the needle 11 has not been lowered to the position where the application operation is performed on the application substrate 5.

  On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4C, the application needle 11 is formed on the distal end surface of the application needle 11 when the distal end surface is lowered to the dimension stop position close to the surface of the application substrate 5. When the droplet LQ is applied to the coating substrate 5, as shown in FIG. 7, the projection laser light L1 is brought close to the position immediately before the droplet LQ contacts the projection position P1 of the substrate 5. The tip of the application needle 11 is irradiated and the droplet LQ formed at the tip of the tip is transmitted.

  At this time, the projection laser beam L1 is refracted at the interface of the droplet LQ, and the refracted and transmitted light L11 is reflected at the surface of the substrate 5 and is transmitted as reflected transmitted light L12 in the direction of the interface of the droplet LQ.

  The reflected transmitted light L12 is further refracted by the interface of the droplet LQ when entering the outside air from the droplet LQ, and enters the reflected light receiving element 21B as reflected light L2.

  The reflected light image Z2 generated on the reflected light receiving element 21B at this time is a reflected light image Z1 (FIG. 8) obtained when the coating needle 11 is separated from the coating substrate 5, as indicated by an arrow e in FIG. 5 and 6) were incident on the origin position (U0, V0) of the reflected light receiving element 21B, but moved to the coordinate position (UK, VK) corresponding to the amount of refraction by the refraction of the droplet LQ. .

  The drop position data S4 representing the incident position of the reflected light image Z2 is supplied to the system control unit 16, which causes the system control unit 16 to drop the application needle 11 to the stop position and thereby the droplet LQ. It can be clearly determined that has reached the state of contacting the surface of the substrate 5.

  At this time, as described above with reference to FIG. 4D, the application needle 11 applies the droplet LQ to the application substrate 5, so that the system control unit 16 applies an ascending command to the stage control unit 15 to apply the liquid droplet LQ. The needle 11 can be controlled to be raised to the reference position.

(3) Droplet Application Processing Procedure When the user inputs a droplet application processing command through the data input unit 17, the system control unit 16 executes a droplet application processing procedure RT1 shown in FIG.

  Upon entering the droplet application processing procedure RT1, the system control unit 16 sets initial setting conditions including the items shown in FIG. 10 in the initial setting condition memory 16A based on the input data S1 input from the data input unit 17 in step SP1. save.

  Subsequently, the system control unit 16 moves to step SP2, and gives the substrate positioning information to the stage control unit 15, thereby providing the XY stage 4 with the XY stage control signal S2 based on the condition input to the initial setting condition memory 16A. By giving, the substrate 5 is positioned with respect to the application needle 11.

  In the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, a microarray 30 is formed on the substrate 5 by applying coating liquid droplets LQX in 2 rows and 3 columns, as shown in FIG.

  Subsequently, the system control unit 16 proceeds to the next step SP3, and lowers the application needle 11 at a preset speed (by the fine movement stage unit 6B) and uses the application needle lowering detection device 21 in step SP4. Then, the detection operation of the application needle 11 on the substrate 5 is performed.

  In the case of this embodiment, when the application needle 11 starts the droplet application operation (FIG. 4A), the distance from the tip of the application needle 11 to the substrate 5 is 5 [mm], and from this position. By dropping the application needle 11 of 50 [μm] at a needle speed of 2 [mm / s] through the 125 [μm] pipette to the substrate 5 to the 5 [μm] stop position, 150 [μm] A coating droplet LQX having a droplet size of is applied.

  In subsequent step SP5, the system control unit 16 determines whether or not the application mode designated by the user using the data input unit 17 is the “dimension mode”. If a negative result is obtained, the process proceeds to step SP6 and the substrate 5 is processed. Then, it is determined whether or not the application needle 11 is in proper contact.

  Thus, the negative result obtained in step SP5 is that the user has selected the contact application mode in which droplet application is performed with the application needle 11 in contact with the substrate 5 as shown in FIG. At this time, the projection laser beam L1 is blocked by the application needle 11 that has fallen to the position in contact with the substrate 5, and thus cannot reach the projection point P1, and as a result, as shown in FIG. Furthermore, since the reflected light L2 does not reach the origin position (U0, V0) of the reflected light receiving element 21B, this means that the reflected light image Z1 is not formed as shown by the broken line.

  At this time, the detection output S11 at the origin position (U0, V0) of the reflected light receiving element 21B is as shown in FIG. 14 before the tip of the application needle 11 comes into contact with the application substrate 5 in the state where the application needle 11 is lowered. In the state, a high detection voltage V1 is obtained by the incidence of the reflected light image Z1. On the other hand, as the application needle 11 approaches the application substrate 5, the tip surface and the application substrate 5 become closer to each other. The detection output starts to decrease from the detection voltage V1 as the gap between them becomes narrower, and when the tip comes into contact with the coating substrate 5, the projection laser beam L1 is in a light-shielding state, and a low detection voltage V2 is obtained. To stabilize.

  Thus, the system control unit 16 applies the application needle 11 when the detection output S1 from the origin position (U0, V0) of the reflected light receiving element 21B crosses the reference value RF1 during the transition from the detection voltage V1 to V2. It is determined that the substrate 5 has been touched, and the process proceeds to step SP7.

  In contrast, when the detection output S1 of the reflected light receiving element 21B does not cross the reference value RF1, the system control unit 16 obtains a negative result in step SP6, so that the application needle 11 is properly applied. Assuming that the substrate 5 has not been touched, the process proceeds to step SP8 where the application needle 11 is raised to the reference position, and then the process returns to the above-described step SP3 to perform the lowering process of the application needle 11 again.

  On the other hand, when an affirmative result is obtained in step SP6, this means that the application needle 11 can properly contact the application substrate 5 to perform the operation of applying droplets. At this time, the system control unit Reference numeral 16 designates an offset value (input from the data input unit 17 by the user) for further appropriately adjusting the lowering condition of the application needle 11 with respect to the application substrate 5 used as the application target, and then in step SP10 the droplet The application operation is performed.

  On the other hand, if a positive result is obtained in the above-described step SP5, this means that the coating needle 11 is stopped immediately before the contact with the coating substrate 5, and the droplets are stopped by the dimension stop described above with reference to FIGS. In this case, the system control unit 16 moves to step SP11 and moves the position (UK, VK) and origin () of the reflected light image Z2 generated in the reflected light receiving element 21B. A difference in position from (U0, V0) is detected, and in step SP12, it is determined whether there is a droplet based on the detection result.

  If an affirmative result is obtained here, this means that the reflected light image Z1 generated in the reflected light receiving element 21B due to the presence of the droplet LQ at the tip of the coating needle 11 is reflected light image Z1 generated when there is no droplet. It means that it has moved from the position (FIG. 8).

  The movement of the reflected light image is determined by the laser beam according to the droplet viscosity, the droplet size, the hydrophilicity of the substrate surface, and the liquid refractive index RFK of the currently applied droplet among the initial setting conditions as described above with reference to FIG. Is determined by the refraction behavior when the liquid crystal L passes through the droplet LQ.

  Therefore, when the reflected light image Z2 is generated at a predetermined position determined by the refraction operation, the system control unit 16 moves to the next step SP13 when a positive result is obtained in step SP12, and the currently detected coating liquid. After the offset value (input from the data input unit 17 by the user) is input and the correction is made so as to obtain a more appropriate detection result, the process proceeds to step SP10 to apply the droplet onto the coating substrate 5. At the same time, the lowering operation of the application needle 11 is stopped.

  On the other hand, if a negative result is obtained in step SP12 described above, this means that the reflected light image Z2 is not generated at the moving position based on the current droplet detection condition. At this time, the system control unit 16 After the application needle 11 is once raised in step SP14, the process returns to the above-described step SP3 and repeats the needle lowering operation until a positive result is obtained in step SP12.

  In practice, the reflected light receiving element 21B detects, as a detection output S12 at a position (UK, VK) where the reflected light image Z2 occurs, as shown in FIG. 15, a droplet LQ formed at the tip of the application needle 11 (FIG. 7). Is in a state where a reflected light image Z1 is generated in a state before falling to the position of the light projection point P1 of the coated substrate 5 (FIG. 8), the voltage output V11 is obtained. On the other hand, as the droplet LQ descends and moves toward the reflected light image Z2 as it approaches the light projection position P1 of the coating substrate 5, the detection output S12 rises from the voltage output V11 to V12. When the droplet LQ eventually falls to a position where it comes into contact with the coating substrate 5, the voltage output V12 is stabilized thereafter.

  Therefore, the system control unit 16 operates to obtain a positive result in step SP12 when the detection output S12 of the position (UK, VK) of the reflected light image Z2 of the reflected light receiving element 21B crosses the reference value RF2.

  In order to appropriately perform such detection operation, variations such as the viscosity of the coating liquid currently detected and the hydrophilicity of the substrate are corrected appropriately by setting an offset value in step SP13.

  Thus, the system control unit 16 applies the coating droplet LQX at the position positioned in step SP2 out of the two rows and three columns of coating droplets LQX of the microarray 30 (FIG. 11) to the next. In step SP15, it is determined whether or not the positioning has been completed for all the application droplets LQX. When all the application droplets LQX have not been applied yet, the application needle 11 is raised in step SP16 and then the above-described steps. Returning to SP2, the coating operation for other coating droplets LQX is repeated.

  Thus, when an affirmative result is obtained in step SP15, this means that all the application droplets LQX have been applied on the microarray 30, and at this time, the system control unit 16 proceeds to step SP17 to apply the droplet application. The processing procedure RT1 is terminated.

  According to the droplet application processing procedure RT1 of FIG. 9, the droplet generated at the tip of the application needle 11 in a state where the application needle 11 is stopped at the stop position without contacting the application substrate 5 is applied to the application substrate 5. It can apply | coat reliably to the upper predetermined position.

  In addition to this, when the user selects the application mode in which the application needle 11 is in contact with the application substrate 5, the droplets are reliably applied to a predetermined position of the application substrate 5 in this case as well. Can do.

(4) Application of different droplet amounts As described above with reference to FIG. 7, the droplets LQ formed by lowering the application needle 11 in the pipette 9 as the application liquid storage member for storing the application liquid are applied to the application substrate. When the droplet application apparatus main body 2 in which the application needle 11 is stopped and the droplet LQ is applied on the coating substrate 5 while being in contact with the droplet 5 is applied, The size of the droplet LQ (and hence the droplet application amount) has a marked difference depending on the method of selecting the descending speed of the application needle 11 and the viscosity of the droplet LQ, whereby the user can apply the droplet to be applied to the application substrate 5. Can be selected according to the application of the coated substrate 5 as required.

  In the case of FIG. 16A, the lowering speed of the application needle 11 is selected to be a high speed (= 2.5 [mm / sec]), and the viscosity of the coating liquid is set to a high viscosity (= 1000 [mPas]). The droplet generation operation in the case of selection is observed with a high-speed camera, and the application needle 11 is applied between the time when the application needle 11 starts to descend and the time t6 when the application needle 11 is lowered to the stop position. When the tip of the tube protrudes from the pipette 9, the viscosity of the coating liquid is large due to the high viscosity of the coating liquid, and the viscosity stress is large due to the high descending speed of the coating needle 11. The force with which the tip of the needle 11 pulls the coating liquid is increased, so that the coating liquid adhering to the application needle 11 is not pulled back to the pipette 9 side due to surface tension, but falls while adhering to the tip of the application needle 11. Go, then the result coating needle 11 has reached the dimension stop position, the amount of droplets LQ remaining on the tip surface is most.

  On the other hand, in the case of FIG. 16B, the lowering speed of the coating needle 11 is selected to be a high speed (= 2.5 [mm / sec]), and the viscosity of the coating liquid is set to a low viscosity (= 500). When [mPas]) is selected, the lowering speed of the application needle 11 is as high as in the case of FIG. 16A from the start time t11 of the application needle 11 to the time t15 when the application needle 11 stops at the stop position. Although the viscosity stress is large at the speed, the viscosity stress becomes small as the viscosity of the coating solution becomes low, and the pulling force against the coating solution when the tip of the coating needle 11 descends from the pipette 9 is shown in FIG. It becomes smaller than the case of A). At this time, the amount of the application liquid adhering to the tip of the application needle 11 is pulled back toward the pipette 9 due to surface tension, and as a result, the liquid formed at the end when the application needle 11 comes to the dimension stop position. The liquid amount of the droplet LQ is smaller than that in the case of FIG. 16A, and becomes the second liquid amount.

  In the case of FIG. 16C, the lowering speed of the application needle 11 is selected to be a low speed (= 1.0 [mm / sec]), and the viscosity of the coating liquid is set to a high viscosity (= 1000 [mPas]). 16), the lowering speed of the application needle 11 decreases from the time t21 when the application needle 11 starts to descend to the time t26 when the application needle 11 stops by dimension stop. Since the drop of the viscous stress from the case becomes larger than that in the case of FIG. 16B, the pulling force of the application needle 11 with respect to the application liquid becomes smaller than that in the case of FIG. At this time, the retraction amount due to the surface tension of the pipette 9 becomes larger than that in the case of FIG. 16B, and as a result, the amount of the droplet LQ formed at the tip when the application needle 11 comes to the stop position. Is a third amount less than in the case of FIG.

  Further, in the case of FIG. 16D, the lowering speed of the coating needle 11 is selected to be a low speed (= 1.0 [mm / sec]), and the viscosity of the coating liquid is set to a low viscosity (= 500 [mPas]). ).

  In this case, the viscosity of the coating liquid is reduced as compared with the case of FIG. 16C from the time when the coating needle 11 starts to descend to the time t34 when the coating needle 11 stops at the stop position. Therefore, when the application needle 11 descends from the pipette 9, the amount pulled back by the surface tension becomes larger, so that the amount of the droplet LQ generated at the tip of the application needle 11 when it reaches the dimension stop position t 34. Is the fourth amount smaller than in the case of FIG.

  According to FIGS. 16A to 16D, the application amount of the droplet LQ on the application substrate 5 can be distinguished into four levels by selecting the lowering speed of the application needle 11 and the viscosity of the application liquid. Droplets LQ with different sizes can be generated.

  Thus, when the size of the droplet LQ is changed in four stages, the shape of the droplet LQ changes, so that the refractive direction of the refracted projection light L11, the refracted reflected light L12, and the reflected light L2 (FIG. 7) with respect to the projection laser light L1 is changed. The direction is different depending on the shape.

  As a result, the movement direction e from the origin (L0, V0) of the reflected light image Z2 (FIG. 8) received by the reflected light receiving element 21B is changed, so that the system control unit 16 performs each case in the same manner as described above. When the application needle 11 has been lowered to the dimension stop position, this can be detected respectively.

  Thus, the user can easily generate droplets having a coating amount corresponding to the application of the coating substrate 5 by using the droplet coating apparatus main body 2 having the same configuration.

(5) Second Embodiment FIG. 17 shows a second embodiment, and the application needle 11 is used as the projection laser beam L21, as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 17 (A), the laser beam L that is focused on the light projection point P1 of the coating substrate 5 on the descending virtual line K1 is used before the coating needle 11 is lowered to the stop position. In the state, the projection laser light L21 forms reflected light L22 that is reflected by the coating substrate 5 and diverges from the light projection point P1, and this is incident on the reflection light receiving element 21BX.

  The reflection light receiving element 21BX is configured to obtain a detection output corresponding to the total light quantity of the incident reflected light L22, and as a result, the application needle 11 reaches the stop position as shown in FIG. When the light falls, the amount of light with respect to the reflected light receiving element 21BX is reduced by the amount of the light shielding portion L23 shielded by the tip of the application needle 11 in the reflected light L22.

  Thus, the detection output obtained in the reflected light receiving element 21BX is input to the signal processing circuit 21D as the detection output S11 in FIG. 1, and the signal processing circuit 21D responds to the change in the amount of the reflected light L22 to the reflected light receiving element 21BX. When the application needle 11 changes from the lowering operation state of FIG. 17A to the dimension stop operation state of FIG. 17B, the lowering position data S4 that changes in response to this is input to the system control unit 16.

  In the above configuration, as described above in the first embodiment, the application needle 11 descends in the direction of the application substrate 5 through the pipette 9, whereby the droplet LQ is applied to the tip of the application needle 11. And the detection output S11 of the reflected light receiving element 21BX changes according to the change in the amount of the reflected light L22 received, whereby the signal processing circuit 21D causes the application needle 11 to measure. The descent position data S4 indicating that the descent has been made to the stop position is given to the system control unit 16, whereby the system control unit 16 applies droplets onto the coating substrate 5 in accordance with the droplet application processing procedure RT1 of FIG.

  Thus, with the configuration shown in FIG. 17 as well, it is possible to accurately apply droplets to the application substrate 5 at the dimension stop position without bringing the application needle 11 into contact with the application substrate 5 in the same manner as described above.

(6) Other Embodiments In the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to the case where a material containing cells as droplets LQ is applied as a coating droplet LQX on the microarray 30 (FIG. 11). Not limited to this, protein or DNA can be dispensed on a microarray, or a liquid crystal panel can be repaired by applying a conductive resin to the disconnected location, or an adhesive or solder paste can be applied on the substrate. The present invention can be widely applied to the case where fine droplets are applied.

  In the above-described embodiment, when the liquid LQ is formed at the tip of the application needle 11 by passing the application needle 11 made of tungsten material through the glass pipette 9 as the application liquid storage member. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the main point is that the coating liquid is lowered through the coating liquid storage member that stores the coating liquid.

  Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the droplet amount is selected based on the descending speed of the application needle 11 and the viscosity of the droplet LQ has been described. You may make it select based on the surface characteristics (roughness, hydrophilicity) of the board | substrate 5, and the inclusion in the droplet LQ.

  The present invention can be used when fine droplets are applied to an application target.

1 is a schematic block diagram showing an embodiment of a droplet applying apparatus according to the present invention. It is a front view which shows the detailed structure of the droplet application apparatus main body of FIG. It is Q1-Q1 sectional drawing which shows the droplet application apparatus main body of FIG. (A)-(D) are the rough-line sectional drawings with which it uses for description of droplet application | coating operation | movement. It is a rough-line side view which shows the needle | hook drop detection apparatus of FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view for explaining the reflected light receiving element of FIG. 5. It is a rough side view with which it uses for description of the droplet application | coating operation | movement of the needle for application. FIG. 8 is a schematic plan view for explaining the detection operation of the reflected light receiving element of FIG. 7. It is a flowchart which shows the droplet application | coating process procedure of the system control unit 16 of FIG. 3 is a chart showing initial setting conditions input to the system control unit of FIG. 1. It is a rough-line top view with which it uses for description of the microarray produced | generated by the droplet application apparatus main body 2. FIG. It is a rough side view with which it uses for description of the contact application | coating operation | movement by the needle for application | coating. FIG. 13 is a schematic plan view for explaining the detection operation of the reflected light receiving element in the contact application mode of FIG. 12. It is a signal waveform diagram with which it uses for description of detection operation | movement of the reflected light light receiving element in contact coating mode. It is a signal waveform diagram with which it uses for description of the detection operation | movement of the reflected light light receiving element at the time of a dimension stop operation | movement. It is a rough side view with which it uses for description of the formation operation | movement of the droplet of different droplet amount. (A) And (B) is a rough-line side view with which it uses for description of the dimension stop detection operation | movement of the needle for application | coating in 2nd Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Droplet coating device, 2 ... Droplet coating device main body, 3 ... Fixed base, 4 ... XY stage, 4A ... X stage part, 4B ... Y stage part, 5 ... Coating substrate, 6... Z stage, 6 A... Coarse movement stage portion, 6 A 1... Fixed portion, 6 A 2... Sliding portion, 6 B. Base: 9 ... Pipette, 10 ... Pipette holding member, 11 ... Application needle, 21 ... Needle drop detection device, 21B ... Reflected light receiving element, 30 ... Microarray.

Claims (3)

In a droplet coating apparatus having a liquid coating apparatus main body that applies a droplet to a coating target by lowering a coating needle through a coating liquid storage member that stores a coating liquid,
Needle drop detection means for detecting that the application needle, which has been dropped from the application liquid storage member and formed a droplet at the tip thereof, has been lowered to a stop position where the droplet contacts the application target;
A droplet coating apparatus comprising: a droplet stopping unit that applies the droplet to the application target and stops the lowering operation of the application needle by a detection output of the needle lowering detection unit. When the application needle is lowered to the dimension stop position, the needle drop detection means projects a projection laser beam onto the droplet generated at the tip of the tip together with the tip of the application needle, The droplet coating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection output is obtained in accordance with a projection position of reflected light that is transmitted through the droplet while being refracted, reflected by the application target, and emitted from the droplet. . The liquid coating apparatus main body can selectively form a plurality of liquid droplets having different liquid droplet amounts by selecting a descending speed of the coating needle and a viscosity of the coating liquid.

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