Patent ID: 8703072

Claim:
A meniscus reducing member comprising: a) a vessel, the vessel comprising a top portion, a closed bottom wall and a sidewall extending from the bottom wall for retaining a given volume of liquid within the vessel, the sidewall comprising an interior surface; and b) a surface feature overlying at least a portion of the interior surface of the vessel, the surface feature includes at least two surfaces for contacting the liquid, the at least two surfaces cooperate to reduce a width of a meniscus formed at an interface between the liquid and the surface feature by physically altering a contact angle between the liquid and the surface feature, the at least two surfaces comprise a plurality of alternating first and second surface regions, each first surface region having a first surface energy and each second surface region having a second surface energy, the second surface energy being different than the first surface energy and the first surface region has a relatively lower degree of hydrophobicity than the second surface region.