JP2007121186A - Analyzer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an analyzer capable of collectively scanning a plurality of analyzing targets even in a case that there is an individual difference in the positions of the analyzing targets on an analyzing disk; and to provide the analyzing disk used therein. <P>SOLUTION: In the analyzer constituted so that the analyzing disk, on which the analyzing targets are arranged is irradiated with detection light to analyze the states of the analyzing targets, the positions of the respective analyzing targets are preliminarily detected at every analyzing disk by a scanning position detecting means 13a and, when scanning analyzing targets, the position of the object lens of a light pickup 9 is corrected on the basis of the detected position data of the respective analyzing targets by a scanning correcting means 14a. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an analyzer and a disk used in the analyzer, and more particularly to a technique for scanning an analysis object arranged on the disk.

  There are an analysis apparatus that analyzes an analysis object by scanning the analysis object on the analysis disk while rotating the analysis disk, and an analysis disk that is used for the analysis apparatus.

  A conventional analyzer and analysis disk will be described below with reference to FIG.

  In the conventional analysis disc 1, in order to manage the position on the disc, position information is recorded spirally or concentrically like a general optical disc. Furthermore, a reference mark 2 is provided on the outermost periphery of the analysis disk 1 so that the position in the circumferential direction can be managed more finely than the position information provided on the optical disk. (Hereinafter, the position information recorded on the optical disc is defined as “address information”, and the position information obtained from the address information and the reference mark is simply indicated as “position information”.) The analysis object 4 is arranged at a predetermined position that can be specified by the address information and the reference mark 2.

  In the conventional scanning method of the analysis target on the analysis disk 1 by the analysis device 6, the analysis disk 1 is first rotated at an arbitrary number of rotations by the disk drive mechanism 7. Next, the optical pickup control mechanism 8 controls the optical pickup 9 to irradiate the analysis disk 1 and reads the address information recorded on the analysis disk 1 with the reflected light. Next, address information indicating the position of the analysis target 4 stored in advance in a storage unit (not shown) is read. The optical pickup control mechanism 8 controls the optical pickup 9 to move based on the read address information of the analysis target 4.

  Thereafter, the optical pickup control mechanism 8 detects the amount of radial deviation between the track and the irradiation position caused by surface blurring, etc., and moves the objective lens in the radial direction to finely adjust the irradiation position to follow the track. The amount of lens movement is determined by the voltage of the lens drive signal applied to the optical pickup 9 by the optical pickup control mechanism 8. On the other hand, the reference mark detection mechanism 10 irradiates the outermost peripheral portion of the analysis disk 1 where the reference mark 2 is present, and detects the reference mark 2 by the change in the amount of received light. The light detection unit 11 detects the amount of light emitted from the optical pickup 9 and converts it into an electrical signal. The signal processing unit 12 recognizes the reference mark 2 in the electric signal acquired by the light detection unit 11, and then A / D-converts an arbitrary sampling number to convert it into data. The conventional analyzer 6 analyzes an object to be analyzed by analyzing received light amount data obtained by scanning as described above (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In addition, as an analysis disk for analyzing a liquid sample, as shown in FIG. 7, a general optical disk 15 is used as a lowermost layer, and cut out to make a chamber 3 that is a place where the sample and the reagent are stirred and reacted. There is a structure in which an intermediate plate 16 is used as an intermediate layer, and a cover plate 17 having an inlet hole for a specimen is stacked on the uppermost layer. The reagent is applied in the chamber 3 in advance, and the specimen is inserted into the chamber 3 through the inlet hole of the analysis disk. When analyzing an analysis disk on which such a liquid sample is placed, the disk drive mechanism 7 performs a stirring process in which the sample and the reagent are stirred by repeatedly decelerating and accelerating the rotation of the analysis disk to react the sample and the reagent. Let Then, the analysis object 4 which is a reaction product of the specimen and the reagent held in the chamber 3 is scanned and analyzed by the scanning method (see Patent Document 2).

On the other hand, in recent years, there is a demand for a small amount of specimen from the market from various viewpoints such as reduction of the burden on the subject and cost reduction by reducing the amount of reagent. In order to cope with this, it is necessary to reduce the analysis target of the analysis disk. Accordingly, it becomes important for the analyzer to accurately detect the position of the analysis object arranged on the analysis disk and scan the position.
Japanese Patent No. 3364719 International Publication No. 03/009010 Pamphlet (Fig. 2)

  However, in the conventional configuration, the optical disk 15 in which address information for managing the position of the analysis target 4 is recorded and the intermediate plate 16 in which the mold of the chamber 3 for holding the analysis target 4 is hollowed are bonded together. At this time, it is difficult to manufacture the analysis disk 1 so that the position of the chamber 3 and the position of the address information on the optical disk 15 are always exactly the same position, and the analysis target 4 of each analysis disk 1 is assigned the same address information. It is not always possible to scan at this position. In particular, the smaller the analysis object 4 is, the greater the influence of the displacement of the analysis object 4 is.

  On the other hand, when analyzing the time-dependent change of the analysis target 4, it is desirable that the scan of each analysis target 4 has as little time difference as possible. However, even if the analysis object 4 on the analysis disk 1 is arranged at a position on the concentric circle, an individual difference occurs at the position for each analysis object 4, so that it is difficult to collectively scan a plurality of analysis objects 4.

  The present invention solves the above-described conventional problems, and even when there is an individual difference for each analysis disk 1 at the position of the analysis target 4, an analysis apparatus that scans a plurality of analysis targets 4 at once and an analysis used therefor An object is to provide a disk 1.

  In order to solve the above-described conventional problems, the present invention receives light emitted from the sample based on light irradiated on a disk provided with a chamber in which the sample is accommodated by an objective lens installed in an optical pickup. In the analyzer for analyzing the sample based on the light received by the objective lens, a light emitting means for emitting light having a light amount different from that of the surrounding light based on the light irradiated around the chamber, and the light emitting means Detection means for detecting the position of the chamber based on the emitted light, storage means for storing the center position of the chamber detected by the detection means, and the objective lens based on the center position of the chamber stored by the storage means Specifying a chamber for scanning, and moving the optical pickup to a position where the objective lens scans the chamber specified by the specifying unit. Consisting includes a moving means.

  Furthermore, the present invention includes a calculating means for calculating an average distance between the center of the chamber scanned by the objective lens and the center of the disk, and the moving means is located at a position away from the center of the disk by the average distance. Move the optical pickup.

  Further, according to the present invention, of the chambers scanned by the objective lens, the distance between the center of the chamber farthest from the center of the disk and the center of the disk, and the center of the chamber closest to the center of the disk And the distance between the center of the disk and the radius of the chamber.

  Further, in the present invention, the chamber is provided on a concentric circle centered on the center of the disk.

  Further, according to the present invention, the moving means moves the optical pickup based on position information in a track spirally or concentrically provided on the disk.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, the moving means moves the optical pickup based on a unit distance of the moving distance of the optical pickup.

  According to the analysis apparatus of the present invention and the analysis disk used therein, a plurality of analysis objects can be scanned collectively even when there is an individual difference for each analysis disk at the position of the analysis object.

  Embodiments of an analysis apparatus of the present invention and an analysis disk used therewith will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of an analysis disk according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The analysis disk 1 has the same three-layer structure as a conventional analysis disk. The analysis disk 1 has a plurality of chambers 3. For example, it is assumed that there are three chambers 3a, 3b, 3c on the analysis disk 1. Further, as indicated by the dotted lines, the reference marks 2a, 2b, 2c are arranged at positions immediately before the rotation direction with respect to the respective chambers 3a, 3b, 3c. Only one reference mark 2a having a width different from that of the other reference marks is prepared in the reference mark so as to be a reference for one rotation cycle. All of these chambers are arranged concentrically as shown by dotted lines. Furthermore, the chamber 3 is circular.

  FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the analysis apparatus and the analysis disk in the first embodiment. The difference from the conventional analyzer is that a scanning position detecting means 13a and a scanning correcting means 14a are provided.

  Hereinafter, a scanning position detection method by the scanning position detection means 13a of the analyzer according to the first embodiment will be described. In the scanning process, the portion of the cut surface 18 of the intermediate plate 16 that is the edge of the chamber 3 as shown in FIG. 3 is less likely to transmit light than the other portions, so that the amount of light is reduced compared to the other portions. For this reason, it is desirable to scan the center of the chamber 3 so as not to be affected as much as possible by the light amount difference of the cut surface 18. Therefore, a scanning position passing through the center of the chamber 3 is obtained from the received light amount data obtained by scanning as follows. For this purpose, the scanning position detector 13a first performs a scanning process by the scanning method. As shown in FIG. 3, two points that pass through the cut surface 18 when the chamber 3 is scanned at a certain radial position are point A and point B. The time when the line segment AB at this time becomes the longest is the scanning position passing through the center of the chamber 3, and is the optimum scanning position. In order to detect the points A and B from the received light amount data obtained by scanning, it is only necessary to find two places where the amount of light is reduced. Since the analyzer 6 holds the theoretical value of the position of the chamber 3 in advance, scanning is performed a plurality of times while changing the radial position from that position, and the two positions where the amount of light is reduced are detected most apart. Find out. Thus, the optimum scanning position of each chamber 3 is detected, and the detected position information of the scanning position of each chamber 3 is stored in the storage unit.

  Subsequently, the pre-processing of scanning correction by the scanning correction unit 14a of the analyzer according to the first embodiment will be described below. First, based on the information on the scanning position of each chamber detected by the scanning position detecting means 13a, the combination of chambers at a distance that can reach the optimum scanning position of each chamber 3 only by moving the objective lens is examined. Then, an average is obtained from the radial position of the specified combination of chambers. This average position is determined as the reference position of the optical pickup 9 when scanning the specified combination of chambers. Next, the distance in the radial direction between each identified combination of chambers and the reference position of the optical pickup 9 is calculated. Next, the voltage of the lens driving signal necessary for moving the objective lens by the calculated distance is obtained. At this time, in order to calculate the lens movement amount that is output with respect to the voltage amount of the lens drive signal to be applied, what is measured and stored in advance in the manufacturing stage of the analyzer 6 is used. This is because there is an individual difference in the sensitivity of the optical pickup 9 to the lens drive signal.

  Hereinafter, a scanning method using the scanning correction means 14a of the analyzer according to the first embodiment will be described. The optical pickup control mechanism 8 moves the optical pickup 9 to the reference position obtained by the scanning correction means 14a. Then, the following is executed during a period from when the reference mark detection mechanism 10 detects the reference mark 2a to when the reference mark 2b is detected. First, when the position of the objective lens is not at the reference position, the optical pickup control mechanism 8 moves the objective lens to the reference position. Next, the optical pickup control mechanism 8 outputs a lens drive signal having a voltage amount necessary for moving the objective lens to the scanning position of the chamber 3b, which is obtained by the scanning correction means 14a in the preprocessing for the scanning position correction. Applied to the optical pickup 9. Thereby, the objective lens of the optical pickup 9 can be moved to the scanning position of the chamber 3b. By performing the above in the same manner for the remaining chambers 3c and 3a, the respective chambers can be reliably scanned.

  As described above, in the first embodiment, by adding the scanning position detecting unit 13a and the scanning correcting unit 14a to the conventional configuration, even when there is an individual difference for each analysis disk in the chamber position, a plurality of chambers 3 are provided. Can be scanned collectively.

  Further, the analysis disk 1 of the first embodiment manages the position information of the chamber by using a disk on which address information is applied spirally or concentrically like an optical disk or the like. Instead, the optical pickup control mechanism 8 The position information of the chamber is managed by the optical pickup movement control unit, specifically, for example, by managing the number of steps moved from the innermost circumference as the reference position, the analysis disk 1 can be managed. Even analysis discs that are not provided with location information such as address information can be used.

  FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an analysis device and an analysis disk according to the second embodiment of the present invention. What is different from the configuration of the first embodiment is a portion of the scanning position detection means 13b and the scanning correction means 14b.

  Hereinafter, pre-processing for scanning correction using the scanning position detection unit 13b of the analyzer according to the second embodiment will be described. The scanning position of each chamber 3 on the analysis disk 1 is detected in the same manner as the scanning position detection means 13b of the first embodiment. At the same time, the scanning position detection means 13b obtains the length of each chamber 3 in the radial direction. For this purpose, it is only necessary to detect two radial positions where the scanning line intersects with the chamber 3 only at one point, such as point C and point D in FIG.

  When the points C and D are scanned, there is only one portion where the amount of light decreases as shown in FIG. 5, and this is a determination condition for determining whether or not the points C and D are scanned. For this reason, when the analyzer actually detects the points C and D, as in the first embodiment, the theoretical value of the position of the chamber 3 that is held in advance is used as a reference from the position. The chamber 3 is scanned a plurality of times while changing the radial position, and the radial position corresponding to the determination condition is detected. The length of each chamber 3 detected in this way is stored in the storage unit.

  Next, scanning correction using the scanning correction unit 14b of the analyzer according to the second embodiment will be described below. First, it is examined whether or not the conditions are such that a plurality of chambers 3 can be scanned in a batch. The condition is when the radial positions of the chambers 3 are closer than a predetermined distance. The predetermined distance is set to ½ of the shortest length in the radial direction of each chamber 3 obtained by the scanning position detector 13b. A combination of chambers satisfying the above conditions is extracted, and an average position of the radial positions in the combination of the chambers is obtained. This average position is set as a scanning position when the combination of chambers is scanned collectively.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, by adding the scanning position detection unit 13b and the scanning correction unit 14b to the conventional configuration, even when there is an individual difference for each analysis disk in the chamber position, the same radial position is obtained. A plurality of chambers can be scanned collectively by detecting chambers that can be scanned.

  The analysis apparatus according to the present invention and the analysis disk used therein have a function of detecting and scanning the position of the analysis target for each analysis disk even if there is an individual difference for each analysis disk at the position of the analysis target, and the optical This is useful as a technique for scanning a specific object on a disk.

Configuration diagram of analyzer in embodiment 1 Configuration diagram of analyzer in embodiment 1 The figure explaining the feature of the amount-of-light-receiving data when the chamber is scanned Configuration diagram of analyzer in embodiment 2 The figure explaining the feature of received light amount data when the edge of a chamber is scanned Configuration of conventional analyzer Sectional view of a conventional analyzer

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Analysis disc 2, 2a, 2b, 2c Reference mark 3, 3a, 3b, 3c Chamber 4 Analysis object 5 Inlet hole 6 Analyzer 7 Disc drive mechanism 8 Optical pickup control mechanism 9 Optical pickup 10 Reference mark detection mechanism 11 Optical detection part 12 Signal processing units 13a and 13b Scanning position detecting means 14a and 14b Scanning correcting means 15 Optical disc 16 Intermediate plate 17 Cover plate 18 Cut surface

Claims (6)

The light emitted from the sample is received by the objective lens installed in the optical pickup based on the light irradiated to the disk provided with the chamber in which the sample is accommodated, and the sample is received based on the light received by the objective lens. In an analyzing apparatus for analysis, a light emitting unit that emits light having a light amount different from that of the surroundings based on irradiated light positioned around the chamber, and a detection that detects the position of the chamber based on the light emitted from the light emitting unit Means, storage means for storing the center position of the chamber detected by the detection means, specification means for specifying the chamber scanned by the objective lens based on the center position of the chamber stored by the storage means, and the specification means And a moving means for moving the optical pickup to a position where the objective lens scans the chamber specified by the above. Computation means for calculating an average distance between the center of the chamber scanned by the objective lens and the center of the disk, and the moving means moves the optical pickup to a position away from the center of the disk by the average distance. The analyzer according to claim 1. Of the chambers scanned by the objective lens, the distance between the center of the chamber farthest from the center of the disk and the center of the disk, the center of the chamber closest to the center of the disk, and the center of the disk The analyzer according to claim 1, wherein a difference between the distance and the distance is equal to or less than a radius of the chamber. The analyzer according to claim 1, wherein the chamber is provided on a concentric circle centered on the center of the disk. The analyzer according to claim 1, wherein the moving unit moves the optical pickup based on position information on a track spirally or concentrically provided on the disk. The analyzer according to claim 1, wherein the moving means moves the optical pickup based on a unit distance of a moving distance of the optical pickup.

Images