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For dispensing, setting the voltage to 0 will cause only a very small pulse to be applied, which 
can be ideal for dispensing that is primarily driven by surface tension. This can yield very low 
variabilities for droplets dispensed on chemically uniform surfaces. However, it can lead to 
missing droplets. 

For spraying, a typical range of voltages is from 10-13 Vpp for a 30 micron dispenser.

Warning

: Applying alternating current with voltages in excess of 10 Vpp to induce spray- 

ing in a dispenser with a tip inside diameter smaller than 10 microns may lead to 
breakage of the dispenser due to the strength of the spraying action. 

From this view, you can manually activate the dispensing or spraying process by clicking on the 

Dispense

 or 

Spray

 buttons, respectively. The dispensing or spraying action will take place for 

the duration specified in the text field underneath the appropriate voltage setting. 

If you wish to have even finer control over the dispenser settings, you can click on the 
disclosure arrow to the left of the 

Advanced

 label in the dialog box. This will slide down an 

additional set of controls. 

These new controls provide a means to adjust the frequency at which spraying and dispensing 
occur. Normally, the resonant frequency of the dispenser is used for these values, a frequency 
that is automatically found during the dispenser calibration process. However, a different 
frequency can be chosen to adjust the behavior of the dispenser. 

43

Summary of Contents for MICROPLOTTER Proto

Page 1: ...MICROPLOTTER PROTO MANUAL REVISION 1 3 SONOPLOT INC 3030 LAURA LANE SUITE 120 MIDDLETON WI 53562 608 824 9311 CONTACT SONOPLOT COM...

Page 2: ......

Page 3: ...le Application 19 One component oligonucleotide microarray 19 Wires from nanometallic inks 27 SonoGuide 29 Overview 29 Main interface 29 Directional controls 31 Toolbar items 32 Saving positions 33 Ro...

Page 4: ...Dispenser refurbishing 58 Revision History 60 3...

Page 5: ...Microplotter among others are trademarks of SonoPlot Inc in the United States and other countries Other parties trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners and should be tr...

Page 6: ......

Page 7: ...liters of fl uid to a surface in order to create features as small as 20 micrometers microns wide due to its use of a novel form of fl uid ejection based on ultrasonic pumping The dispenser at the cor...

Page 8: ...pot on a surface but not deactivating the dispenser after fl uid contact has been made with the surface Instead the dispenser is moved along the surface in a straight line leaving behind a smooth line...

Page 9: ...be of much use without a precision positioning system to place that dispenser at select locations and do so in an automated fashion The robotic positioner of the Microplotter system occupies most of i...

Page 10: ......

Page 11: ...d and optics system already mounted iMac control computer with keyboard and mouse Control electronics A box containing cables for attachment of the various components Additionally SonoGuide the primar...

Page 12: ...Rear view of control electronics box Power cable Positioning stage X Y and axis cables These are interchangeable and can be attached in any order USB cable to control computer 9...

Page 13: ...e electronics box into a USB port on your computer and also insert the USB cable from the CCD camera to a different USB port on your computer This step is shown below on a Mac computer The process is...

Page 14: ...er connectors to the control electronics Installing the SonoGuide software The SonoGuide software is available on both the MacOS platform and Windows platform Follow the steps below to install the Son...

Page 15: ...older SonoGuide has now been installed to your MacOS computer Windows Go to www sonoplot com downloads and click on the SonoGuide for Windows link Download the SonoGuideInstaller exe Once downloaded r...

Page 16: ...Select the components to install 13...

Page 17: ...Select where you would like to create SonoGuide s shortcut SonoGuide is ready to be installed 14...

Page 18: ...Click Install to start installing SonoGuide Once the installer has fi nished installing SonoGuide click on Finish SonoGuide has been installed and is ready to use 15...

Page 19: ...ting the exposed glass needle to any surface as even a slight touch can shatter the fragile tip To load a dispenser cartridge carefully place the notched side of the dispenser onto the printhead as sh...

Page 20: ...ront of the control box When the system is powered on the green power light and orange COMM light will be illuminated on the front of the box Double click on the SonoGuide icon to open the controlling...

Page 21: ...Fully installed Microplotter Proto system 18...

Page 22: ......

Page 23: ...Microplotter instrument to lay down continuous lines These examples assume that the system has been properly installed as described in Chapter 2 One component oligonucleotide microarray To begin turn...

Page 24: ...port microscope slides either replace the deck with one that does or use a different substrate material After loading the slide clip into place a new dispenser if one is not already in the system Conn...

Page 25: ...opening the Camera Controls from the windows options and adjusting the sliders in the dialog that will appear Close this window when fi nished Now that the dispenser and camera are set up properly it...

Page 26: ...ver shooting the surface too far will damage the glass needle Change the large step size to 1000 microns one millimeter and more fi nely position the dispenser relative to the surface of the microscop...

Page 27: ...ve been entered press the Calibrate surface cant button to begin the surface topography measurement The dispenser will move down until it contacts the surface the position will be measured and then th...

Page 28: ...be easy to return to later To do this click on the button in the Positions window This will create a new position and leave you able to edit its name Type in Above slide and hit Return when you are d...

Page 29: ...to add a new solution to the list Enter in a name of Solution 1 and hit Return when you are done Click Set Custom Position to set this up as a custom position using the current coordinates When the g...

Page 30: ...ve the dispenser 2 4 millimeters to your right and towards you to better center the pattern on the slide With the addition of fl uid to the dispenser there is the possibility that its vibrational prop...

Page 31: ...ositioner to its safe resting location and remove the fi nished microarray from the deck of the Microplotter system Wires from nanometallic inks A typical microelectronic application of a Microplotter...

Page 32: ...SonoGuide window to switch back to that application Manually move the dispenser over to the well containing the ink to be deposited and down into the ink until the tip is below the fi ll level of the...

Page 33: ...windows and arrange these windows in any fashion the user fi nds useful Main interface Upon starting SonoGuide it will check with the robotic positioner of the Microplotter system to determine its st...

Page 34: ...been homed it will prompt you that it is about to do so Warning Clear the working area of the Microplotter system and make sure that no one is near the volume covered by the robotic arm as the positio...

Page 35: ...starting with the directional controls Directional controls The window for the directional controls appears as follows These controls allow you to move the positioner manually in a stepwise fashion or...

Page 36: ...eir home points Warning The home move travels over a large distance and can be very fast so make sure that all objects and personnel are clear of the positioner s working range before clicking on this...

Page 37: ...on highlight a position by clicking on it and press Crosshairs This will cause the dispenser to pick up to a set height the setting of which will be explained in the next section move over to the corr...

Page 38: ...is being moved manually and when the movement is controlled by the computer during the automatic deposition of a pattern For example it might be desirable to have faster speeds and accelerations set...

Page 39: ...By enabling this option the system will cause the dispenser to approach the surface in smaller steps and use a more sensitive detection routine The downside to this is that the approach to the surfac...

Page 40: ...loaded in this manner Once a pattern has been loaded it will be previewed in the middle of the main interface A crosshair indicates the current position of the dispenser relative to the rest of the pa...

Page 41: ...eir name Only the enabled and visible layers will be printed These layers can be associated with solution wells that have been laid out in SonoGuide by clicking next to them in the Solution Well colum...

Page 42: ...stay at the last location in a pattern when done as opposed to the normal process of returning to the start on print completion with the second option The third option lets the system optimize the pat...

Page 43: ...me display from the CCD camera pointed at the tip of the fl uid dispenser The high magni fi cation optics surrounding the CCD have a fi eld of view that is approximately 1200 microns 1 2 mm across and...

Page 44: ...save the snapshot to Additionally you can select the image format of the snapshot from a range of different types with many quality options to choose from At the top of the main user interface there a...

Page 45: ...be used with Exposure to tune the camera input for different lighting conditions Brightness The overall brightness of the camera image too high and it can reduce the contrast of the image too low and...

Page 46: ...praying action within a hollow cavity Settings for controlling the behavior of the dispenser can be found under Dispenser Show dispenser controls or the Control dispenser toolbar item In the default v...

Page 47: ...rom this view you can manually activate the dispensing or spraying process by clicking on the Dispense or Spray buttons respectively The dispensing or spraying action will take place for the duration...

Page 48: ...d to be recalibrated due to changes in its contents or drift in the system The connection of a dispenser to the system is not automatically detected Open the Calibrate Dispenser toolbar item to begin...

Page 49: ...on dialog either choose the menu item Dispenser Perform Dispenser Calibration or the Calibrate dispenser toolbar item Solution well locations The Microplotter has the ability to dispense multiple solu...

Page 50: ...tion has been selected its properties will appear on the Solution Settings window In addition to solution wells locations for rinse solvents and waste wells can be set These can be shared between solu...

Page 51: ...it takes to spray all of that solution out of the dispenser and the number of rinse cycles required to fully clean out that solution from the dispenser Each solution can be set to either return solut...

Page 52: ...ime of a dispenser can be prolonged by preventing positioning overshoot that might damage a dispenser s fragile tip The application of this surface sensing has been described in the Main interface and...

Page 53: ...tical directions After the sensing run has completed the cant of the surface in X and Y will be calculated stored and reported in this window This is expressed as a slope the number of microns to rise...

Page 54: ...ration will be used for every pattern printed after this point until you clear the calibration To clear the calibration click on the Clear rotational calibration button at the bottom of the dialog box...

Page 55: ...face sensor as described in the previous section When retracted from the surface the signal should sharply drop off once again If this behavior is not observed repeat the calibration and try again Thi...

Page 56: ...ngle next to the Advanced label This will expose a series of realtime readouts from the ultrasonic frequencies used to determine when contact has been made with a surface This can be used by SonoPlot...

Page 57: ...uts Find Surface Ctrl Cmd F Set A1 position Ctrl Cmd 1 Move to desired position Ctrl Option click Go Home Fn Left arrow MacOS Go Home Home key Windows When using Trackball Hold SHIFT to move 10X When...

Page 58: ......

Page 59: ...de of the dispenser s tip Other polymers may harden to the point where solvent is unable to dissolve the polymer permanently sealing it shut SonoGuide gives the error message Positioner is not connect...

Page 60: ...e on the dispensing tip Sonoplot suggests moving the tip down to a short distance above the surface then stepping down in 10 micron steps until a fl uid bridge is made between the tip and the surface...

Page 61: ...the sensor diagnostics dialog by choosing the Dispenser Show Diagnostics menu item as described in Chapter4 This window displays the realtime readout from the surface sensor A red line indicates the...

Page 62: ......

Page 63: ...as 10 Viscosity 450 cP Positioning 31 x 31 x 7 cm X Y Z axes 10 m resolution Calibration Automatic surface height calibration Camera USB 3 0 with digital video capture Computer Included running Mac OS...

Page 64: ......

Page 65: ...pipette from the wide end by scribing the glass and breaking it Use a scoring wafer such as the Sutter ceramic scoring wafer www sutter com part number CTS Reassemble the dispenser by replacing the RJ...

Page 66: ...59...

Page 67: ...chapter to include new version UI features Version 1 2 Added the polygon pattern element to Chapter 9 Version 1 1 Revised the SonoGuide chapter to include the new pattern preview window and DXF import...

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