Uniform acquisition for high-throughput DNA sequencing

The demand for higher throughput and lower cost DNA sequencing did not dissipate with the successful completion of the first human genome but, instead, is actually accelerating in a period of functional genomics. We have developed a high-throughput DNA sequencing instrument utilizing MEMS technology to sequence DNA samples in 384 separate channels in parallel. The performance of the system relies on the quality and uniformity of the data acquisition system. In this work we describe the different constraints of the system and our solution that balances the conflicting requirements of a high data throughput, low noise and uniform performance across all channels.