Plate Scanner

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The temperature controlled plate scanner is a sample holder for high-throughput SAXS data collection on solid or highly viscuous samples. It was originally developed for high throughput studies on lipidic cubic phases and uses a sample plate with holes arranged in a standard 96-well microplate format (12x8 holes, 9 mm pitch, 5 mm hole diameter). The plate holder is temperature controlled using a circulating waterbath and can achieve a temperature range from 5C to 80C.
 

Plate Scanner basic parameters:

number of samples	96 (arranged in a 12 x 8 grid)
temperature range	5C - 80C
sample volume	typical 5ul (depending on thickness of plate)
sample throughput	~12 min / plate

The samples are placed in the holes of the plate, which are then sealed using a low scattering polymer foil (e.g. COC). The plate is mounted onto the plate holder and aligned using three fiducial points on the plate after which all 96 samples in the plate can then be measured in one go. Using one measurement per sample with 1s exposure time a full plate is measured in approximately 12 min.  Optionally multiple spots can be measured per hole in case that the sample is nonuniformly distributed in the holes.  If the sample to be measured is much smaller than the hole, but its location inside the hole is known, a text file containing a list of coordinates with the deviations of the sample positions from the center of the well on the plate can be read in by the software to individually change the position at which the measurement will be taken.