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CA-3091004-C - SAMPLE HANDLING SYSTEMS, MASS SPECTROMETERS AND RELATED METHODS

CA3091004CCA 3091004 CCA3091004 CCA 3091004CCA-3091004-C

Abstract

Slide analysis a gripper with three sensors for controlling a slide grip sequence and at least one rotatable carousel with a slide receiving channel. The systems also include a robot with a robot arm that holds a slide gripper residing inside the housing in communication with the rotatable carousel. The systems also include a load lock chamber and a door sealably coupled to the second end portion and an acquisition vacuum chamber with an X-Y stage and a slide holder with a vacuum seal.

Inventors

  • Jared Bullock
  • Scott Collins
  • Ian MacGregor
  • Mark Talmer

Assignees

  • BIOMERIEUX, INC.

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20190211
Priority Date
20180213

Claims (20)

  1. THAT WHICH IS CLAIMED: 1. A slide sample handling or analysis system, comprising: a housing comprising a front wall with a slide port; 5 10 15 20 25 30 an input/output module comprising at least one rotatable carousel comprising a slide receiving channel, wherein the carousel rotates between first and second positions, wherein the first position is a slide intake position that positions an open end of the slide receiving channel outward, aligned with the slide port to be able to slidably receive a slide, and wherein the second position places the open end of the slide channel facing into the housing; a robot with a robot arm that holds a slide gripper residing inside the housing in communication with the rotatable carousel, wherein the robot arm can move in three dimensions in the housing; a load lock chamber having longitudinally opposing first and second end portions, a through channel, and a door sealably coupled to the second end portion; and an acquisition vacuum chamber with an X-Y stage and a slide holder with a vacuum seal interface that can extend into the load lock chamber to seal the first end portion of the load lock chamber and retract with a slide transferred to the slide holder from the slide gripper of the robot into the acquisition vacuum chamber, after the door of the load lock chamber is closed.
  2. 2. The system of Claim 1, wherein the carousel is configured to have a single one of the slide receiving channel with a length that extends over greater than a major portion of a diameter of the carousel across a center of the carousel.
  3. 3. The system of Claim 1 or 2, wherein the open end of the slide channel has a perimeter that is recessed inward relative to an outer diameter of the carousel.
  4. 4. The system of any one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the slide gripper comprises first and second gripper arms that are parallel and side-by-side and pivotably held by a laterally extending shaft adjacent an upper jaw and lower jaw of the slide gripper, the first arm coupled to the upper jaw of the slide gripper and the second arm coupled to the lower jaw of the slide gripper. 37
  5. 5. The system of Claim 4, wherein the upper jaw of the slide gripper comprises a notch configured to receive an alignment member with the notch residing above the lower jaw. 5 10 15 20 25 30
  6. 6. The system of Claim 4 or 5, wherein the system further comprises: a gripper motor coupled to the first and second gripper arms; a home sensor, a grip sensor and a slide presence sensor, each of the home sensor, grip sensor and slide presence sensor coupled to at least one of the first and second gripper arms; and a control circuit in communication with the gripper motor and the home sensor, the grip sensor and the slide presence sensor, wherein the control circuit receives sensor data from the home sensor, the grip sensor and the slide presence sensor to identify an open or closed state of the upper jaw and lower jaw, and, if the upper and lower jaw are in the closed state, to identify whether a slide is present.
  7. 7. The system of Claim 6, wherein the first gripper arm resides adjacent to but at a height above the second gripper arm, and wherein the home sensor and the grip sensor are aligned, one above another on a printed circuit board coupled to an end of the first gripper arm.
  8. 8. The system of Claim 7, wherein an end of the second gripper arm is coupled to the slide presence sensor, and wherein the slide presence sensor is held by the printed circuit board adjacent but spaced apart from the home sensor and the grip sensor.
  9. 9. The system of Claim 7 or 8, wherein the printed circuit board is attached to a pivotable arm segment of the robot arm of the robot.
  10. 10. The system of any one of Claims 1 to 9, further comprising a first vacuum pump connected to the acquisition vacuum chamber and a second vacuum pump connected to the load lock chamber, wherein the first vacuum pump resides above the second vacuum pump in the housing.
  11. 11. The system of any one of Claims 1 to 10, further comprising a removable bezel face plate providing the slide port, and wherein the bezel face plate is held by a bevel bracket 38 with an open window that is coupled to an upper bracket member that resides inside the housing and angles inwardly at an angle between 5-45 degrees from a location adjacent the bezel face plate to an upper segment thereof. 5 10 15 20 25 30
  12. 12. The system of Claim 11, further comprising one or more of: the bezel face plate has a width between 4-6 inches and a height between 6-10 inches, the housing is a table-top housing configured with a width, length and height of: 0.7 m x 0. 7 m x 1.1 m, and the housing includes an internal sample storage space with a width, length and height size that is 0.25 m x 0.3 m by 0.3 m.
  13. 13. The system of Claim 11 or 12, wherein the removable bezel face plate is attached to an internal bezel bracket plate that has an upper bracket member that holds a camera, wherein the upper bracket member extends inwardly from a segment proximate the bezel face plate to an upper segment thereof at an angle between 5-45 degrees, and wherein the camera has a field of view that covers at least an end portion of the slide when the carousel is in the second position.
  14. 14. The system of any one of Claims 11 to 13, wherein the input/output module comprises a drive motor coupled to a drive shaft under the carousel that rotates the carousel between the first and second positions, and wherein when the removable bezel face plate is detached from the housing to expose an access window, the carousel can be removed from the access window of the housing for cleaning.
  15. 15. The system of any one of Claims 1 to 14, further comprising a plurality of spaced apart intake vents in fluid communication with intake fans with filters on a back of the housing and a plurality of output vents in fluid communication with output fans on a top of the housing, wherein the intake and output fans cooperate to provide a positive pressure inside the housing with at least one of passive and fan-driven airflow out of the housing to inhibit contaminants from entering the housing.
  16. 16. The system of any one of Claims 6 to 9, wherein the home sensor and the grip sensor are separately triggerable by a position of a first end of the first gripper arm, and 39 wherein the slide presence sensor is triggerable by a position of a first end of the second gripper arm. 5 10 15 20 25 30
  17. 17. The system of Claim 15, further comprising a laser coolant path that extends from an inlet on a front of the housing to an outlet on top of the housing.
  18. 18. The system of any one of Claims 1 to 17, wherein the robot has a base that is mounted to a floor of the housing, and wherein the input/output module has a base that is mounted to the floor of the housing adjacent the robot base and closer to a front of the housing than the robot base.
  19. 19. The system of any one of Claims 1 to 18, wherein the port is oblong in a lateral dimension with laterally opposing arcuate ends.
  20. 20. The system of any one of Claims 1 to 19, wherein the through channel of the load lock chamber has a lateral width that is greater than a height and a volume that is between 1 cc and 100 cc.

Description

SAMPLE HANDLING SYSTEMS, MASS SPECTROMETERS AND RELATED METHODS Related Applications 5 10 15 20 25 30 [0001] This paragraph has been intentionally left blank. Field [0002] The present invention relates to sample handling systems and is particularly suitable for samples analyzed by mass spectrometers. Background [0003] Mass spectrometers are devices which ionize a sample and then determine the mass to charge ratios of the collection of ions formed. One well known mass analyzer is the time-of flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS), in which the mass to charge ratio of an ion is determined by the amount of time required for that ion to be transmitted under the influence of electric fields (pulsed and/or static) from the ion source to a detector. The spectral quality in TOFMS reflects the initial conditions of the ion beam prior to acceleration into a field free drift region. Specifically, any factor which results in ions of the same mass having different kinetic energies and/or being accelerated from different points in space will result in a degradation of spectral resolution, and thereby, a loss of mass accuracy. Matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) is a well-known method to produce gas phase biomolecular ions for mass spectrometric analysis. The development of delayed extraction (DE) for MALDI-TOF has made high resolution routine for MALDI-based instruments. In DE MALDI, a short delay is added between the ionization event, triggered by the laser, and the application of the accelerating pulse to the TOF source region. The fast (i.e., high-energy) ions will travel farther than the slow ions thereby transforming the energy distribution upon ionization to a spatial distribution upon acceleration (in the ionization region prior to the extraction pulse application). [0004] See U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,625,184, 5,627,369 and 5,760,393. See also, Wiley et al., Time of-flight mass spectrometer with improved resolution, Review of Scientific Instruments vol. 26, no. 12, pp. 1150-1157 (2004); M. L. Vestal, Modern MALDI time-of-flight mass spectrometry, Journal of Mass Spectrometry, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 303-317 (2009); Vestal et al., Resolution and mass accuracy in matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight, Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, vol. 9, no. 9, pp. 892-911 (1998); 1 and Vestal et al., High Performance MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry for proteomics, International Journal of Mass Spectrometry, vol. 268, no. 2, pp. 83-92 (2007). 5 10 15 20 25 30 Summary [0005] Embodiments of the present invention are directed to sample handling systems for instruments configured for sample analysis. [0006] Embodiments of the present invention are directed to mass spectrometer systems with sample handling systems that include a 3-D robot assembly and a load lock chamber in fluid communication with a vacuum chamber. [0007] Embodiments of the invention are directed to a slide handling assembly. The assembly includes a slide gripper comprising first and second gripper arms that are parallel and side-by-side and pivotably held by a laterally extending shaft adjacent an upper jaw and lower jaw of the slide gripper, the first arm coupled to the upper jaw of the slide gripper and the second arm coupled to the lower jaw of the slide gripper. [0008] The assembly can further include a gripper motor coupled to the first and second gripper arms. [0009] The assembly can also include a home sensor, a grip sensor and a slide presence sensor, and each sensor each can be coupled to at least one of the first and second gripper arms. The assembly can also include a control circuit in communication with the gripper motor and the home sensor, the grip sensor and the slide presence sensor. The control circuit can receive sensor data from the home sensor, the grip sensor and the slide presence sensor to identify an open or closed state of the upper jaw and lower jaw, and, if the upper and lower jaw are in the closed state, to identify whether a slide is present. [0010] The first gripper arm can reside adjacent to but at a height above the second gripper arm. [0011] The home sensor and the grip sensor can be aligned, one above another, and may reside on a printed circuit board that can be coupled to an end of the first gripper arm. [0012] An end of the second gripper arm can be coupled to the slide presence sensor. The slide presence sensor can be held by the printed circuit board adjacent but spaced apart from the home sensor and the grip sensor. [0013] Yet other embodiments are directed to slide sample handling and/or analysis systems. The systems include a housing having a front wall with a slide port and an input/output module with at least one rotatable carousel that includes a slide receiving channel. The carousel rotates between first and second positions. The first position is a slide intake 2 5 10 15 20 25 30 position that positions an open end of the slide receiving channel outward, aligned with the slide port