Claims
- 1. A device for simultaneously subjecting samples contained within individual sample wells of a multi-well titration plate to different preselected programs of temperature variations, comprising:a fixed array of sleeves dimensioned and arranged to individually receive each of said sample wells in a titration plate; an individually controllable heating mechanism associated with each sleeve which upon activation, individually and exclusively causes the sample contained in the sample well received in such sleeve to increase in temperature; a cooling mechanism associated with each of sleeve which is capable of withdrawing heat from a sample contained in the sample well received in such sleeve so as to decrease its temperature; a controller for controlling each of said heating mechanism such that samples contained within each of said sample wells may simultaneously be subjected to an individually preselected temperature variation program.
- 2. The device of claim 1, wherein said controller additionally controls each of said cooling mechanisms.
- 3. The device of claim 1, wherein each of said individually controllable heating mechanism comprises a heating element in thermal contact with one of said sleeves and said cooling mechanism comprises a heat sink.
- 4. The device of claim 3, wherein said heat sink comprises a cold plate.
- 5. The device of claim 3, wherein said heat sink comprises an air heat exchanger.
- 6. The device of claim 1, wherein said cooling mechanism comprises a separate, individually controllable cooling device for each sample well.
- 7. The device of claim 6, wherein said heating and cooling mechanism associated with each sleeve comprises a Peltier device.
- 8. The device of claim 7, further comprising a heat sink in thermal contact with said Peltier device.
- 9. The device of claim 1, wherein said cooling mechanism comprises a separate deflectable thermal conductor that is in thermal contact with each of said heating mechanisms, wherein such conductor is configured to be in thermal contact with a heat sink while in its undeflected state and to break thermal contact with said heat sink upon deflection, and wherein deflection is caused by heat generated by said heating mechanism.
- 10. The device of claim 9, wherein said deflectable thermal conductor comprises a bimetallic element.
- 11. The device of claim 9, wherein said deflectable thermal conductor comprises a nitinol material.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/939,029 filed on Sep. 26, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,784.
US Referenced Citations (18)
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
39 41 168 |
Jun 1990 |
DE |
2 333 250 |
Jul 1999 |
GB |
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08/939029 |
Sep 1997 |
US |
Child |
09/643479 |
|
US |