METHOD FOR DETECTING OPERATION STATE OF MICROPIPETTE

PURPOSE:To perform accurate liquid spotting by providing a process which detects and confirms a series of operations for the specific position arrangement of an object of the micropipette, sample discharging with its discharge button, and the leaving of its tip from a sample. CONSTITUTION:The micropipette 1 which consists of a main body 2, the discharge button 4, and a chip 3 and has optically coupled sensors 15 and 16, a light absorbing means 14, and light reflecting means 12 and 13 is arranged on a holder 10. The sensors 15 and 16 detect the incomplete, in-process, and complete states of the arrangement of the pipette 1 on the holder 1, sample discharging completion state, and the separation state of the chip 3 from the sample with the button 4 pressed. The combination of the specific light quantity photodetection states of the sensors 15 and 16 in the respective states is constant when the operation is performed normally, so this is stored as a standard signal in a signal processing part 17 previously and compares with the signal in actual operation. Consequently, it is confirmed whether or not the sample is spotted by a specific amount.