Background

Acoustic energy at ultrasonic frequencies has been utilized for many years for a variety of diagnostic, therapeutic, and research purposes. The acoustic physics of ultrasonics is well understood; however, the biophysical, chemical, and mechanical effects are generally only empirically understood. Some uses of sonic or acoustic energy in materials processing include "sonication," an unrefined process of mechanical disruption typically involving the direct immersion of an unfocused ultrasound source emitting energy in the kilohertz ("kHz") range into a fluid suspension of the material being treated. Accordingly, the sonic energy often does not reach a target in an effective dose because the energy is scattered, absorbed, and/or not properly aligned with the target.

There are also specific clinical examples of the utilization of therapeutic ultrasound (e.g., lithotripsy) and of diagnostic ultrasound (e.g., fetal imaging). However, ultrasonics has heretofore not been controlled to provide an automated, broad range, precise materials processing or reaction control mechanism. The Covaris systems are capable of providing controlled delivery of acoustic energy to closed vessels.

Other Process Features

Minimization of unwanted interference with the pattern of applied ultrasonic energy is another feature of the Covaris process. For example, ultrasonic energy applied to a sample in a reaction vessel has the potential to directly interact with the target sample, or to reflect from bubbles or other effects from a previous cycle of ultrasound application and not interact with the target, or to miss the target because of spatial separation or mismatch. Minimization of interference is especially beneficial for remote, automated, sterile processing of small amounts of target material, for example, 10 mg of a biopsy tissue.

By minimizing the reflections and optimizing spatial positioning, the ultrasonic energy is more efficiently utilized and controlled. The process can be standardized to obtain reproducibility by presetting conditions such as waveform and positioning, by a feedback signal, and feedback-based control to maintain preset performance target parameters, or by a combination of these methods.

Many biological or chemical processes may be performed or enhanced by use of the Covaris ultrasonic wavetrains. For example, these include lysing, extracting, permeabilizing, stirring or mixing, comminuting, heating, fluidizing, sterilizing, catalyzing, and selectively degrading. The acoustic waves may also enhance filtration, fluid flow in conduits, and fluidization of suspensions. Processes may be synthetic, analytic, or simply facilitative of other processes such as stirring.