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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Methods. 2017 Jun 19;14(8):805–810. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.4335

Figure 2. Design of the micro-patterned silicon chip and data collection strategy.

Figure 2

(a) The chip is attached to a plastic rod for the purpose of thermal isolation. The membrane part within the outer frame consists of micropores with diameters of typically 4 µm–8 µm, which are arranged in a triangular grid (a, inset). (b) The chip acts as a sample holder for more than 20,000 microcrystals, which largely organize themselves according to the pore pattern. (c) After loading, the microcrystals are scanned through the X-ray beam. By shooting through the micropores in the chips the interaction of the X-rays with any support material is further minimized. (d, e) Scanning strategies for measurements performed at room temperature and cryogenic temperatures, respectively (see text for details).