Innovating Thermal Management in High-Throughput Biological Screening
At Ascential Medical & Life Sciences,
we provide engineering support to design,
develop, manufacture, and automate complex instruments and devices. This month, we are excited to share our innovative approach in addressing one of the most critical challenges in high-throughput biological screening: thermal management.
The Challenges
Maintaining a consistent environment for biological assays is paramount to achieving accurate and consistent results.
The following factors, however, pose significant challenges:
Tight Temperature Ranges
High-throughput assays require extremely precise temperature control. For optimal cellular growth and consistency in high-throughput instruments, we have designed systems that require temperatures to fall within a 6-sigma distribution across a 34.5 +/-0.5˚C range. In one instrument, as seen in the histogram on the right, the distribution of initially measured temperatures was significantly outside of these bounds.
Quality and Process Controls
Automated instruments, particularly diagnostic or therapy devices, require regular logging of critical quality attributes and process control parameters.
Thermal Variation Sources
Proximity to external ambient temperatures, introduction of samples, or influence from nearby heat sources can significantly affect thermal performance.
Calibration
Ensuring that heater elements are accurately calibrated is crucial, especially in compact designs, as adjacent elements can influence each other's performance.
Our Approach
To tackle these issues, Ascential Technologies employs a comprehensive
methodology that combines experimentation, root cause analysis, modeling
and robust hardware design, and system-level solutions:
Thermal Profiling
Diagnostic instruments often contain multiple heat-generating components, including agitation motors, vortexers, and centrifuges, which can cause local temperature fluctuations. We fully characterize the thermal profile of our diagnostic devices by placing thermal probes across an instrument to locate and quantify all contributing heat sources.
Closed Loop Thermal Control
We implement closed-loop, active heating systems with real time data logging to maintain consistent temperatures across all interfaces.
Design Optimization
We minimize impacts of such heat sources via hardware design changes. As shown in the example on the left, the motor plate was skewing the temperatures upward, so we optimized the motor design to provide the required torque at a lower current.
Automated Calibration
In systems that require extremely tight thermal control, we can develop a fully automated calibration procedure to baseline each thermal cell. Calibration offset values can then be applied to ensure precise temperature control across all thermal locations. As seen in the histogram to the right, the implementation of these solutions in a specific instrument resulted in a significantly tighter distribution of temperatures than those shown in the histogram above.
Through our innovative approach to thermal management, we design instruments that can conduct high-throughput biological screenings while providing reliable and reproducible results.
Featured Resources
Explore these resources for the latest research, case studies, guides, and more, crafted to propel your business into the future.
Contact Us
Looking to address thermal management challenges?
As we move forward, Ascential Technologies remains committed to pushing the envelope in diagnostic and therapy technologies. Our team is continually working on innovative solutions in collaboration with our customers to improve the performance and reliability of their instruments.
Our team is continually working on innovative solutions in collaboration with our partners to improve the performance and reliability of their instruments.
How can we help you?
Contact us today to discuss how we can help tackle your toughest, most complex challenges and unlock the performance of your business.