APPARATUS FOR THE AUTOMATED PIPETTING AND RELATED PROCESS

It is herein described an apparatus for the automated pipetting arranged to automatically aspirate, transfer and dispense a liquid, such as a biological sample or a reagent, comprising: - an air displacement system to aspirate and dispense a determined volume of liquid, including a pneumatic circuit and a pressure and vacuum source (3), - pipetting means (2) comprising at least one pipetting head (6) connected to said source (3) by means of said pneumatic circuit, - a pipetting tip (21 ) arranged to contain the aspirated liquid, following the activation of the air displacement system to aspirate and dispense a determined volume of liquid, - an internal duct (9) arranged to convey the air displacement generated by said pressure and vacuum source (3), up to the end of the pipetting tip (21 ), so as to perform the operations of aspiration and dispensing of liquid, - a first solenoid valve (4) in communication with the internal duct (9), arranged to control the leakage or retention of the air flow introduced by the source (3), said first solenoid valve (4) being in a normally closed position, - a flow sensor (8) arranged to detect the volume of aspirated/dispensed liquid, wherein said flow sensor (8) is a MEMS thermal sensor.