Development of highly accurate and reproducible nL/pL dispensing processes by nanodrop technologies.

In a number of research activities at UGent which are aiming for the creation of a spin-off company, the spatially and volumetrically precise dispensing of extremely small volumes of liquids (down to 10’s of picoliters) is a crucial fabrication step. In the laboratory proof-of-concept processes this dispensing is done manually (using micro-pipettes) with limited precision and reproducibility. The aim of the tool and the project is to convert these manual processes to very precise automated processes with the use of a new nanodrop dispenser machine. With the successful demonstration of the feasibility of nanodrop technology in the UGent spin-off projects a double goal is achieved: not only it realises an important missing link in the industrial proof of concept for the biosensors, aimed at in the spin-off projects, at the same time it leverages further R&D in projects with industrial partners at higher TRL levels.