Method and Coating Apparatus for the Manufacture of a Microarray

Abstract

In a method for the manufacture of a microarray, surface areas of a chip are brought into contact with different aqueous solutions that contain at least one coating substance. For each of the individual surface areas, an absorbent substrate is provided and is filled with the solution that is to be brought into contact with the surface area in question. Then, for the printing of the surface area with the at least one coating substance contained in the solution, each substrate is brought into contact with the surface area in question.

1 . An apparatus to provide a chip for a microarray with aqueous solutions that contain coating substances, wherein the apparatus has a mounting plate with openings, in each of which there is a substrate that is absorbent for aqueous solutions, which substrate projects partly out of the opening to form a stamp pad, and the substrates are filled with different aqueous solutions that contain at least one coating substance. 
     
     
         2 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the substrates located in the openings are polymer substrates that can swell in an aqueous solution. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the internal walls of the openings are each coated with a silane layer and this silane layer is in contact with the swellable polymer located in the opening. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the silane layer has a chemical group that, when brought into contact with a monomer, initiates its polymerization. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the interior walls of the openings have projections and/or recesses that grip the substrates from behind. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the openings are realized in the form of openings that run all the way through the mounting plate transverse to its plane of extension, and on the one end of each of the individual openings there is a portion of the substrate that projects above the surface of the mounting plate, and the other end of each of the openings is connected to a reservoir that corresponds to the opening to hold a solution. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein the mounting plate is made essentially of a semiconductor material, in particular of silicon and on its surface preferably has a microfiber membrane which has hydrophilic surface areas and at least one hydrophobic surface area.