Patent ID: 9417166
Filing Date: 2016-08-16
CPC Classification: A01N,G01N

Claim Text:
1. A system for rapidly cooling a small sample having a volume equal to or less than 10 microliters and an initial, non-freezing temperature to a temperature of a cryogenic medium that it will contact, comprising: a non-flowing, cryogenic medium, characterized by a stationary cold gas layer having a thickness, T, immediately adjacent a surface of the non-flowing cryogenic medium, where T is the distance above the surface of the non-flowing, cryogenic medium at which the gas temperature rises by at least 70% of the difference between the cryogenic medium surface temperature and the gas temperature at ambient, or to water's glass transition temperature, or to water's homogeneous nucleation temperature, or to a melting temperature of the sample; and a source that provides a forced volume of warm, dry air actively disposed into the cold gas layer prior to contact of the small sample with the cryogenic medium configured to actively reducing the thickness, T, to a layer having a thickness equal to or less than 0.1T immediately adjacent the surface of the non-flowing cryogenic medium, wherein ‘warm’ means one of: a) the initial temperature of the small sample, where the initial temperature of the small sample is higher than the gas temperature over the thickness, T, and b) for a water-containing biological sample, greater than the sample's glass temperature and the homogeneous nucleation temperature for crystalline ice formation.