Supplementary Fig. 6: OptoPlate-96 thermal management.

a) The optoPlate-96 includes an active heatsink to homogenize and minimize heat transfer to the samples. An aluminum plate is positioned under the illuminator, and a thermal pad between the plate and illuminator enhances heat transfer between two. An active heatsink is then positioned under the aluminum plate, and the entire assembly is fixed to the illuminator using the heatsink bolts and hex nuts. OptoPlate heating can arise from many factors, including large current draws, low fan speed, and oversupply of LED voltage. Thus, each individual protocol will have unique heating profiles and should ideally be measured empirically before each experiment (most easily by measuring PBS temperature in a 96-well plate during an optoPlate run at the bench). To measure heating systematically, we built a 12-channel temperature sensor (b) using the 10K Precision Epoxy Thermistor from Adafruit. With this device, we could simultaneously measure temperature changes in different locations during an optoPlate run (c). d) Different illumination profiles lead to different sample heating profiles. As the total current/light-flux decreases, heating above baseline decreases. Notably, heating between different plate locations is uniform (within 0.5–1°C). Certain illumination profiles (500 ms ON, 4500 ms OFF) generate no sample heating over long periods (10h shown). Heating traces are organized by variation along columns (top) or rows (bottom). Colors of traces correspond to well locations in (c). Difference in temperature baselines reflects differences in ambient temperature between experiments.