Patent ID: 8292598

Claim:
A pumping system comprising: a dispense pump, wherein the dispense pump has a maximum available volume, the dispense pump further comprising: a dispense diaphragm movable to multiple positions within a dispense chamber, wherein the multiple positions include a dispense pump home position, the dispense pump home position corresponding to an available volume for a process fluid in the dispense pump, and wherein the available volume is less than the maximum available volume; a dispense motor to move the dispense diaphragm; and a pump controller coupled to the dispense pump, the pump controller operable to: control the dispense pump to move the dispense diaphragm to a dispense pump hard stop position prior to partially filling the dispense pump, the dispense pump hard stop position corresponding to zero available volume for the process fluid in the dispense pump; control the dispense pump to move the dispense diaphragm in the dispense chamber from the dispense pump hard stop position to reach the dispense pump home position by reversing the dispense motor a corresponding number of steps such that the dispense pump is partially filled with the process fluid for a dispense operation, wherein the available volume corresponding to home position represents a total available volume for the dispense pump in a dispense cycle and wherein the dispense pump home position is determined by the pump controller based on one or more parameters for the dispense operation; and control the dispense pump to dispense the process fluid from the dispense pump.