Assay cartridge valve system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10272436-B2
Application number	US-201314412866-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 3, 2013
Priority date	Dec 3, 2010
Publication date	Apr 30, 2019
Grant date	Apr 30, 2019

Abstract

Assay cartridges are described that have a plurality of chambers and a fluidic network that includes fluidic conduits and a multi-port valve designed to selectively connect the valve inlet and one valve outlet through a fluidic connector in the valve as the remaining valve outlets are sealed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An assay cartridge comprising:
a) a plurality of chambers; and
b) a fluidic network including
i) a plurality of fluidic conduits connecting said plurality of chambers; and
ii) a multi-port valve comprising:
(y) a stator comprising a rotor engagement member and a first substantially planar surface comprising at least one valve inlet, and a plurality of valve outlets accessible to one or more fluidic conduits in said fluidic network; and
(z) a rotor biased toward said stator by a spring and attached to a sealing member comprising a second substantially planar surface and disposed between said rotor and said stator and said rotor comprises a stator engagement member, wherein in a first configuration said rotor is moved away from said stator in a direction that compresses the spring when said stator engagement member is in communication with said rotor engagement member,
wherein in a second configuration said stator, said sealing member and said rotor contact each other when said stator engagement member is not in communication with said rotor engagement member, wherein said rotor is configured to be rotated to fluidically connect said at least one valve inlet to one of said plurality of valve outlets through a fluidic connector on the rotor while said second planar surface of said sealing member seals against said first planar surface to seal the remaining valve outlets.

2. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said spring is disposed between said rotor and a cap.

3. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said spring comprises a top surface, a bottom surface, a cylindrical body comprising a central vertical axis disposed between said top and bottom surfaces and a plurality of pairs of axially spaced radially extending grooves surrounding said central vertical axis, and a plurality of through-holes intersecting said central vertical axis at a position perpendicular to the intersection of said plurality of pairs of grooves to said central vertical axis.

4. The assay cartridge of claim 3 wherein said plurality of pairs of grooves and said plurality of through-holes define a plurality of ribs in said cylindrical body.

5. The assay cartridge of claim 3 wherein said rotor is configured to be rotated by a stepper motor.

6. The assay cartridge of claim 3 wherein said top surface comprises an instrument interface element.

7. The assay cartridge of claim 6 wherein said bottom surface comprises said sealing member.

8. The assay cartridge of claim 7 wherein said multi-port valve is rotatable to selectively open one of said plurality of valve outlets.

9. The assay cartridge of claim 8 wherein said multi-port valve selectively opens one of said plurality of valve outlets by (a) rotating said rotor via engagement between a stepper motor and said instrument interface element, and (b) disengaging said stator and rotor engagement members, thereby fluidically connecting said valve inlet to one of said plurality of valve outlets through said fluidic connector and sealing the remaining valve outlets via compression of said sealing member against said stator.

10. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said spring comprises a corrugated stem.

11. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said spring has a spring force between about 0.5 and 5.0 lbs.

12. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said spring has a spring force of about 2.5 lbs.

13. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said rotor comprises an instrument interface element.

14. The assay cartridge of claim 13 wherein said instrument interface element comprises a slot configured to communicate with a stepper motor in said instrument.

15. The assay cartridge of claim 14 wherein said instrument interface element comprises one or more pin engagement slots configured to communicate with one or more drive pins in said stepper motor.

16. The assay cartridge of claim 14 wherein said instrument interface element comprises a multi-blade engagement slot configured to communicate with a multi-lobe drive element in said stepper motor.

17. The assay cartridge of claim 16 wherein said multi-blade engagement slot comprises a three-blade engagement slot and said multi-lobe drive element comprises three lobes.

18. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said stator engagement member comprises a tab and said rotor engagement member comprises a ramp, wherein said tab rides on said ramp to move said rotor away from said stator.

19. The assay cartridge of claim 18 wherein said ramp comprises an upward slope and a downward slope.

20. The assay cartridge of claim 19 wherein said tab rides on said upward slope to move said rotor away from said stator and wherein said tab rides on said downward slope to move said rotor toward said stator.

21. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said multi-port valve comprises up to 20 valve outlets.

22. The assay cartridge of claim 21 wherein said multi-port valve comprises up to 10 valve outlets.

23. The assay cartridge of claim 22 wherein said multi-port valve comprises up to 6 valve outlets.

24. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said rotor is rotated to fluidically connect said valve inlet to two or more valve outlets through a fluidic connector on said rotor while said sealing member seals the remaining valve outlets.

25. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said sealing member comprises an elastomer with a Shore A hardness of between about 35 and 90.

26. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said sealing member comprises an elastomer with a Shore A hardness of at least about 40.

27. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said sealing member comprises an elastomer with a Shore A hardness of at least about 50.

28. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said sealing member comprises an elastomer with a Shore A hardness of at least about 60.

29. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said plurality of valve outlets are positioned in said stator at a fixed radius from said valve inlet.

30. The assay cartridge of claim 29 wherein said fixed radius is between about 0.1 and about 0.4 inches.

31. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said multi-port valve comprises an internal dead volume of less than about 10 uL.

32. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said multi-port valve comprises an internal dead volume of about 7 uL.

33. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said rotor is a unitary element including said spring and said stator engagement member, and said sealing member is attached to said unitary element.

34. The assay cartridge of claim 33 wherein said unitary element and/or said sealing member is/are injection molded.

35. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said plurality of chambers comprises a sample chamber, a detection chamber, and a waste chamber.

36. The assay cartridge of claim 35 wherein said sample chamber is connected to a sample chamber conduit comprising a filter outlet conduit connected to said valve inlet.

37. The assay cartridge of claim 1 wherein said cartridge comprises two or more of said multi-port valves.

38. The assay cartridge of claim 37 wherein said two or more of said multi-port valves are connected in series.

Assignees

• Glezer Eli N
• Jeffrey Coker Bandele
• Page Kenneth
• Kovacs Sandor
• Kumar Sudeep
• Roth Kristian
• Meso Scale Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Glezer Eli N
• Jeffrey-Coker Bandele
• Page Kenneth
• Kovacs Sandor
• Kumar Sudeep
• Roth Kristian

Classifications

• B01L2400/0622

  distribution valves, valves having multiple inlets and/or outlets, e.g. metering valves, multi-way valves · CPC title

• B01L2300/0867

  Multiple inlets and one sample wells, e.g. mixing, dilution · CPC title

• Y10T436/2575

  Volumetric liquid transfer · CPC title

• F16K11/0743

  with both the supply and the discharge passages being on one side of the closure plates · CPC title

• B01L2300/0816

  Cards, e.g. flat sample carriers usually with flow in two horizontal directions · CPC title