JP2007248251A - Agitator and analyzer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an agitator for restricting a temperature rise of liquid caused by heat generation in a surface acoustic wave element, and an analyzer. <P>SOLUTION: An agitator for agitating a liquid held in a container by means of sound wave and an analyzer are provided. This agitator 20 is equipped with the surface acoustic wave element 24 generating a sound wave to be applied to the liquid with the surface acoustic element 24 contacting with the container, and a restriction member restricting heat generation in the wave element accompanying the generation of the sound wave. The restriction member is a Peltier element 27 making contact with the surface acoustic wave element 24 to restrict the heat generation in the surface acoustic wave element by cooling, or a heat dissipation member for restricting heat generation in the surface acoustic wave element by heat dissipation. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a stirring device and an analysis device.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an analyzer is known that includes a stirrer that stirs a liquid containing a specimen or a reagent held in a container with sound waves generated by sound wave generation means (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-300651

  By the way, the sound wave generated by the sound wave generation means propagates through the propagation medium such as the solid substrate, the container wall, and the acoustic matching layer of the sound wave generation means existing in the propagation path while leaking into the liquid. The part is absorbed by the propagation medium as it propagates. For this reason, the solid substrate generates heat.

  As a result, in the stirring device that irradiates the liquid with sound waves while the sound wave generating means is in contact with the container, the temperature of the liquid rises due to the heat generated by the sound wave generating means when driven. In this case, the smaller the amount of the liquid, the smaller the heat capacity of the liquid, and thus the temperature rise of the liquid increases. For this reason, this type of agitation apparatus has a problem that the specimen and the reagent are easily deteriorated by heat and the analysis accuracy becomes unstable.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a stirring device and an analysis device capable of suppressing the temperature rise of the liquid caused by the heat generation of the sound wave generating means.

  In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, a stirrer according to claim 1 irradiates the liquid while being in contact with the container in a stirrer that stirs the liquid held in the container by sound waves. A sound wave generating unit that generates a sound wave, and a suppression unit that suppresses heat generation of the sound wave generating unit due to the generation of the sound wave are provided.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the above invention, in the above invention, the suppression unit is in contact with the sound wave generation unit, the cooling unit for suppressing heat generation of the sound wave generation unit by cooling, or the sound wave generation unit by heat dissipation. It is a heat dissipation means for suppressing heat generation.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the above invention, the stirring device further includes a control unit that controls a cooling operation of the cooling unit.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the above invention, the control means controls the cooling operation of the cooling means based on at least one of the amount, viscosity, heat capacity, specific heat or thermal conductivity of the liquid. It is characterized by doing.

  The stirring device according to claim 5 is characterized in that, in the above invention, the control means controls a cooling operation of the cooling means based on a driving condition of the sound wave generating means.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the above invention, the heat dissipating means conducts heat generated when the sound wave generating means generates sound waves to a portion having a lower temperature than the sound wave generating means. It is a conductive member.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the above invention, in the above invention, the sound wave generating means has a piezoelectric substrate having a sound generating portion for generating a sound wave formed on a surface thereof, and is attached to the container via an adhesive layer. It is a surface acoustic wave device.

  Further, in the stirring device according to claim 8, in the above invention, the sound wave generating means may be configured such that the absolute value of the difference between the acoustic impedance of the piezoelectric substrate or the acoustic impedance of the container and the acoustic impedance of the adhesive layer is It is characterized by being larger than the absolute value of the difference between the acoustic impedance of the piezoelectric substrate and the acoustic impedance of the container.

  The stirrer according to claim 9 is characterized in that, in the above invention, the sound wave is a bulk wave.

  In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, an analyzer according to claim 10 stirs and reacts a plurality of different liquids, measures optical characteristics of the reaction liquid, An analysis apparatus for analyzing, wherein the reaction liquid of the sample and the reagent is optically analyzed using the stirring device.

  The stirrer according to the present invention includes a sound wave generating unit that generates a sound wave to be applied to the liquid while being in contact with the container, and a suppression unit that suppresses heat generation of the sound wave generating unit due to the generation of the sound wave. Uses the agitator to optically analyze the reaction solution of the specimen and the reagent. For this reason, the stirrer and the analyzer of the present invention have an effect that it is possible to suppress an increase in the temperature of the liquid due to the heat generated by the sound wave generating means.

(Embodiment 1)
Hereinafter, Embodiment 1 concerning the stirring apparatus and analyzer of this invention is demonstrated in detail, referring drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an automatic analyzer including the stirring device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an enlarged portion A of the cuvette wheel constituting the automatic analyzer shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a plan view of the cuvette wheel containing the reaction vessel cut horizontally at the position of the wheel electrode. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the stirring device together with a cross-sectional view of the cuvette wheel and the reaction vessel.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the automatic analyzer 1 includes reagent tables 2 and 3, a cuvette wheel 4, a specimen container transfer mechanism 8, an analysis optical system 12, a cleaning mechanism 13, a control unit 15, and a stirring device 20. ing.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the reagent tables 2 and 3 hold a plurality of reagent containers 2a and 3a arranged in the circumferential direction, respectively, and are rotated by a driving unit to convey the reagent containers 2a and 3a in the circumferential direction.

  In the cuvette wheel 4, as shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of holders 4b for arranging the reaction vessel 5 are formed in the circumferential direction by a plurality of partition plates 4a provided along the circumferential direction. The reaction vessel 5 is conveyed by being rotated. As shown in FIG. 2, the cuvette wheel 4 is formed with a photometric hole 4c in a radial direction at a position corresponding to the lower part of each holder 4b, and uses the upper and lower two insertion holes 4d provided in the upper part of the photometric hole 4c. The wheel electrode 4e is attached.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the wheel electrode 4e is bent at one end extending from the insertion hole 4d to come into contact with the outer surface of the cuvette wheel 4, and the other end extended from the insertion hole 4d is similarly bent. Is disposed in the vicinity of the inner surface of the holder 4b. Thereby, the wheel electrode 4e is holding the reaction container 5 arrange | positioned at the holder 4b with the spring force.

  Further, the cuvette wheel 4 is formed with a recess 4f in which the Peltier element 27 is disposed at a position adjacent to the lower part of each holder 4b in the circumferential direction, and a pressure contact member 28 is disposed at the back of the recess 4f. The recess 4f is formed with a ventilation hole 4g that opens on the upper surface of the cuvette wheel 4 at the top. The cuvette wheel 4 is provided with reagent dispensing mechanisms 6 and 7 in the vicinity thereof.

  The reagent dispensing mechanisms 6 and 7 dispense the reagents from the reagent containers 2 a and 3 a of the reagent tables 2 and 3 to the reaction container 5 disposed on the cuvette wheel 4. Here, as shown in FIG. 1, the reagent dispensing mechanisms 6 and 7 are provided with probes 6b and 7b for dispensing reagents on arms 6a and 7a that rotate in the direction of the arrows in the horizontal plane, respectively. A cleaning means for cleaning the probes 6b and 7b is provided.

  On the other hand, the reaction vessel 5 is a transparent material that transmits 80% or more of the light contained in the analysis light (340 to 800 nm) emitted from the analysis optical system 12 to be described later, such as glass containing heat-resistant glass, cyclic olefin, and polystyrene. A synthetic resin such as is used. As shown in FIG. 2, the reaction vessel 5 is a square tube-shaped cuvette having a holding portion 5a (see FIGS. 3 and 4) for holding a liquid containing a specimen and a reagent, and a surface acoustic wave element 24 is provided on the side wall 5b. And an electrode pad 5e connected to each of the pair of input terminals 24d of the surface acoustic wave element 24 is attached.

  The reaction vessel 5 is set on the holder 4b with the surface acoustic wave element 24 facing the partition plate 4a, and each electrode pad 5e contacts the corresponding wheel electrode 4e. The electrode pad 5e is integrally provided across the surface acoustic wave element 24 and the side wall 5b. The reaction vessel 5 is used as a photometric window 5c through which a portion surrounded by a dotted line at the lower side of the side wall adjacent to the side wall 5b transmits the analysis light.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the sample container transfer mechanism 8 is a transfer unit that transfers a plurality of racks 10 arranged in the feeder 9 one by one along the arrow direction, and transfers the racks 10 while stepping. The rack 10 holds a plurality of sample containers 10a containing samples. Here, each time the step of the rack 10 transferred by the sample container transfer mechanism 8 stops, the sample container 10a receives the sample by the sample dispensing mechanism 11 having the arm 11a and the probe 11b that rotate in the horizontal direction. Dispense into each reaction vessel 5. For this reason, the specimen dispensing mechanism 11 has a cleaning means for cleaning the probe 11b with cleaning water.

  The analysis optical system 12 emits analysis light (340 to 800 nm) for analyzing the liquid sample in the reaction vessel 5 in which the reagent and the sample have reacted. As shown in FIG. It has a portion 12b and a light receiving portion 12c. The analysis light emitted from the light emitting unit 12a passes through the liquid sample in the reaction vessel 5 and is received by the light receiving unit 12c provided at a position facing the spectroscopic unit 12b. The light receiving unit 12 c is connected to the control unit 15.

  The cleaning mechanism 13 sucks and discharges the liquid sample in the reaction vessel 5 with the nozzle 13a, and then repeatedly injects and sucks a cleaning liquid such as a detergent and cleaning water with the nozzle 13a, thereby performing analysis by the analysis optical system 12. The reaction vessel 5 that has been completed is washed.

  The control unit 15 stores information such as an operation program input in advance to control the operation of each unit of the automatic analyzer 1 and the agitating device 20, and also adjusts the amount of light emitted from the light emitting unit 12a and the amount of light received by the light receiving unit 12c. This is a control means for analyzing the component concentration and the like of the specimen based on the absorbance of the liquid sample in the reaction container 5, and a microcomputer or the like is used, for example. As shown in FIG. 1, the control unit 15 is connected to the input unit 16 and the display unit 17.

  The input unit 16 is a part that performs an operation of inputting an inspection item or the like to the control unit 15, and for example, a keyboard, a mouse, or the like is used. The input unit 16 is also used for operations such as switching the frequency of a drive signal input to the surface acoustic wave element 24 of the stirring device 20. The display unit 17 displays analysis contents, alarms, and the like, and a display panel or the like is used.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the stirring device 20 includes a drive control unit 21 and a surface acoustic wave element 24. The drive control unit 21 controls the cooling operation of the surface acoustic wave element 24 by the Peltier element 27 based on information such as liquid inspection items and liquid characteristics input from the input unit 16 via the control unit 15, or Based on the driving conditions of the surface acoustic wave element 24, the cooling operation of the surface acoustic wave element 24 by the Peltier element 27 is controlled. The drive control unit 21 is disposed on the outer periphery of the cuvette wheel 4 so as to face the cuvette wheel 4 (see FIG. 1). In addition to the contact 21b (see FIG. 3) provided on the housing 21a, a signal is generated in the housing 21a. And a drive control circuit 23. The contact 21b is provided on the housing 21a facing the two wheel electrodes 4e. When the cuvette wheel 4 stops, the contact 21b comes into contact with the corresponding wheel electrode 4e, and the drive control unit 21 and the surface acoustic wave element 24 of the reaction vessel 5 are connected. Electrically connected. Therefore, every time the rotation of the cuvette wheel 4 stops, the stirring device 20 changes the wheel electrode 4e with which the contact 21b of the drive control unit 21 contacts, and the surface acoustic wave element 24 to be driven, that is, the reaction vessel to be stirred. 5 is changed.

  Here, the drive control unit 21 is a liquid inspection item input from the input unit 16 via the control unit 15, a liquid characteristic input from the input unit 16 and stored in the control unit 15, or a surface acoustic wave element. By controlling the cooling operation of the Peltier element 27 on the basis of the driving conditions of 24, the temperature rise of the piezoelectric substrate 24a of the surface acoustic wave element 24 is suppressed. In this case, the characteristics of the liquid include the amount of liquid, viscosity, heat capacity, specific heat, or thermal conductivity. The drive control unit 21 controls the cooling operation of the Peltier element 27 based on at least one of the characteristics of these liquids. The driving conditions of the surface acoustic wave element 24 include the amplitude, frequency, application time (duty ratio), etc. of the drive signal input to the surface acoustic wave element 24 by the drive control unit 21.

  Here, the liquid characteristics include characteristics that are measured in advance by the manufacturer of the automatic analyzer 1 or estimated and stored in the control unit 15 at the time of factory shipment, and prior to stirring that is repeatedly performed on the user side after factory shipment. It may be a characteristic measured at the time of preliminary stirring measurement and stored in the control unit 15 by the user side. In the case of repeated stirring, the result of liquid quantity, viscosity, heat capacity, specific heat or thermal conductivity obtained during the previous stirring may be used as the liquid characteristics.

  The signal generator 22 has an oscillation circuit capable of changing the oscillation frequency based on a control signal input from the drive control circuit 23, and generates a high-frequency drive signal of about several MHz to several hundred MHz as a surface acoustic wave element. 24. The drive control circuit 23 uses an electronic control means (ECU) incorporating a memory and a timer, and controls the operation of the signal generator 22 based on a control signal input from the input unit 16 via the control unit 15.

  The drive control circuit 23 controls the operation of the signal generator 22 to control the driving conditions of the surface acoustic wave element 24, for example, the characteristics (frequency, intensity (amplitude), phase, and wave characteristics of the sound wave emitted by the surface acoustic wave element 24. Characteristic), waveform (sine wave, triangular wave, rectangular wave, burst wave, etc.) or modulation (amplitude modulation, frequency modulation), etc. Further, the drive control circuit 23 can change the frequency of the high frequency signal oscillated by the signal generator 22 in accordance with a built-in timer.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the surface acoustic wave element 24 has a vibrator 24b made of a bidirectional comb-like electrode (IDT) formed on the surface of a piezoelectric substrate 24a. The vibrator 24b is a sound generation unit that converts a drive signal input from the drive control unit 21 into a sound wave (bulk wave), and a plurality of fingers constituting the vibrator 24b are arranged along the longitudinal direction of the piezoelectric substrate 24a. ing. The vibrator 24b is connected to the input terminal 24d by a bus bar 24e. In the surface acoustic wave element 24, a pair of input terminals 24d and a single drive control unit 21 are connected by a contact 21b that contacts the wheel electrode 4e. The surface acoustic wave element 24 is attached to the side wall 5b of the reaction vessel 5 through an adhesive layer 25 (see FIG. 6) such as an epoxy resin. In this case, the surface acoustic wave element 24 may be adjusted in the vertical position of the vibrator 24b according to the amount of liquid held in the reaction vessel 5. That is, the surface acoustic wave element 24 has the vibrator 24b so as to correspond to the upper side of the reaction vessel 5 when the amount of liquid to be held is large and to the lower side of the reaction vessel 5 when the amount of liquid is small. Deploy.

  Here, the drawings showing the surface acoustic wave elements described below including the surface acoustic wave element 24 shown in FIG. 4 are mainly intended to show the outline of the configuration. The line width or pitch is not necessarily drawn accurately. The electrode pad 5e may be provided integrally on the input terminal 24d, or the input terminal 24d itself may be the electrode pad 5e.

  The Peltier element 27 is a suppression unit that suppresses heat generation associated with the driving of the surface acoustic wave element 24, and its operation is controlled by the drive control circuit 23 of the stirring device 20. The Peltier element 27 is attached to the tip end of a pressure contact pin 28 a included in the pressure contact member 28. The Peltier element 27 is supplied with driving power from the stirring device 20 by a contact 21c that contacts the electrode 4h provided on the cuvette wheel 4 in the same manner as the wheel electrode 4e. Here, the Peltier element 27 is connected to the electrode 4h by electric wiring.

  The operation of the pressure contact member 28 is controlled by the drive control circuit 23 of the stirring device 20, and the Peltier element 27 is pressed against the reaction vessel 5 via the surface acoustic wave element 24. For example, an actuator such as a solenoid is used as the pressure contact member 28, and driving power is supplied from the stirring device 20 by a contact 21d that contacts the electrode 4i provided on the cuvette wheel 4 in the same manner as the wheel electrode 4e.

  Here, the pressure contact member 28 is connected to the electrode 4i by electric wiring. When the reaction vessel 5 holding the liquid to be agitated is placed in each holder 4 b, the pressure contact member 28 extends the pressure contact pin 28 a and moves the Peltier via the surface acoustic wave element 24 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The element 27 is brought into pressure contact with the reaction vessel 5. However, when the reaction vessel 5 holding the liquid to be stirred is not disposed in each holder 4b, the pressure contact member 28 retracts the pressure contact pin 28a and retracts the Peltier element 27 into the recess 4f as shown in FIG. I am letting.

  In the automatic analyzer 1 configured as described above, the reagent dispensing mechanisms 6 and 7 supply the reagents from the reagent containers 2a and 3a to the plurality of reaction containers 5 conveyed along the circumferential direction by the rotating cuvette wheel 4. Dispense sequentially. In the reaction container 5 into which the reagent has been dispensed, the specimen is dispensed sequentially from the plurality of specimen containers 10 a held in the rack 10 by the specimen dispensing mechanism 11. Whenever the cuvette wheel 4 stops, the contact 21b comes into contact with the wheel electrode 4e, and the drive control unit 21 and the surface acoustic wave element 24 of the reaction vessel 5 are electrically connected. For this reason, in the reaction vessel 5, the dispensed reagent and the specimen are sequentially stirred by the stirring device 20 to react.

  In the automatic analyzer 1, the amount of the sample is usually smaller than the amount of the reagent, and a small amount of sample dispensed into the reaction vessel 5 is drawn into the large amount of reagent by a series of flows generated in the liquid by stirring. The reaction between the specimen and the reagent is promoted. The reaction solution in which the sample and the reagent have reacted in this way passes through the analysis optical system 12 when the cuvette wheel 4 rotates again, and the light beam LB emitted from the light emitting unit 12a is transmitted as shown in FIG. . As a result, the reaction solution of the reagent and the sample in the reaction container 5 is sidelighted by the light receiving unit 12c, and the concentration of the component is analyzed by the control unit 15. Then, after the analysis is completed, the reaction vessel 5 is washed by the washing mechanism 13 and then used again for analyzing the specimen.

  At this time, based on the control signal input from the input unit 16 via the control unit 15 in advance, the automatic analyzer 1 sends a drive signal from the contact 21b to the input terminal 24d when the cuvette wheel 4 is stopped. input. Thereby, in the surface acoustic wave element 24, the vibrator 24b is driven according to the input drive signal, and a sound wave (bulk wave) is induced. The induced sound wave (bulk wave) propagates from the adhesive layer 25 into the side wall 5b of the reaction vessel 5, and as shown in FIG. 6, the bulk wave Wb leaks into the liquid L having a close acoustic impedance. As a result, a flow F is generated in the liquid L held in the reaction vessel 5 by the leaked bulk wave Wb, and the dispensed reagent and specimen are agitated by the flow F.

  Here, the bulk wave Wb generated by the surface acoustic wave element 24 propagates through the piezoelectric substrate 24a, the adhesive layer 25, and the side wall 5b of the reaction vessel 5 while being subjected to multiple reflection, as shown in FIG. At this time, the bulk wave Wb propagating while being multiple-reflected has acoustic impedance at the boundary surface between the piezoelectric substrate 24a and the adhesive layer 25, the boundary surface between the adhesive layer 25 and the side wall 5b, and the boundary surface between the side wall 5b and the liquid L, respectively. Leaks to the propagation medium side where the difference is small, and leaks to the liquid L. Each medium generates heat as a result of being absorbed when the bulk wave Wb undergoes multiple reflections within each medium. At this time, regarding the acoustic impedance of the propagation medium, the surface acoustic wave element 24 has an absolute value of a difference between the acoustic impedance of the piezoelectric substrate 24a or the acoustic impedance of the reaction vessel 5 and the acoustic impedance of the adhesive layer 25. If the relationship between the impedance and the acoustic impedance of the reaction vessel 5 is greater than the absolute value and there is a relationship of the acoustic impedance of the piezoelectric substrate 24a and the side wall 5b >> the acoustic impedance of the adhesive layer 25, the amount of sound waves absorbed by the piezoelectric substrate 24a And the amount of heat generated by the piezoelectric substrate 24a increases.

  At this time, in the surface acoustic wave element 24, since the vibrator 24b formed on the surface of the piezoelectric substrate 24a is a bidirectional comb-like electrode (IDT), as shown in FIGS. When arranged on the lower side of the reaction vessel 5, the bulk wave Wb leaks upward and downward with reference to the position of the vibrator 24b. For this reason, when the vibrator 24b is at the position shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the line indicating the bulk wave Wb in FIGS. For this reason, FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 show the bulk wave Wb leaking into the liquid L by taking the case where the vibrator 24b is located above the piezoelectric substrate 24a and located on the side wall 5b near the gas-liquid interface of the reaction vessel 5. In addition, bulk waves Wb that are multiple-reflected in each medium are illustrated.

  The stirrer 20 generates the bulk wave Wb by driving the surface acoustic wave element 24 as described above when the cuvette wheel 4 is stopped, and stirs the liquid L held in the reaction vessel 5 by the bulk wave Wb. At this time, the piezoelectric substrate 24a generates heat by driving the surface acoustic wave element 24. However, when the cuvette wheel 4 is stopped, the contact 21c simultaneously contacts the electrode 4h as shown in FIG. It contacts the electrode 4i. As a result, driving power is supplied from the stirrer 20 to the Peltier element 27 and the pressure contact member 28, the Peltier element 27 is pressed against the surface acoustic wave element 24 by the pressure contact member 28, and the surface acoustic wave element 24 is cooled.

  For this reason, the surface acoustic wave element 24 can suppress heat generation due to driving, and can suppress an increase in the temperature of the liquid L held by the reaction vessel 5 due to the heat generation. In addition, the cooling operation of the Peltier element 27 is controlled by the drive control unit 21 in accordance with the characteristics of the liquid that is the stirring target held by the reaction vessel 5 and the driving conditions of the surface acoustic wave element 24, etc. Heat generation due to driving of the element 24 is appropriately suppressed. At this time, as the temperature of the surface pressed against the surface acoustic wave element 24 decreases and the surface acoustic wave element 24 cools, the back surface of the Peltier element 27 generates heat and the temperature rises.

  However, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the cuvette wheel 4 is formed with a ventilation hole 4 g that opens on the upper surface of the cuvette wheel 4 in the upper part of the recess 4 f that accommodates the Peltier element 27. For this reason, when the back surface of the Peltier element 27 generates heat, the air on the back surface side of the Peltier element 27 is heated to lower the density, and the concave portion 4f is raised while entraining the air in the holder 4b in which the reaction vessel 5 is disposed. It is guided to 4 g and discharged from the upper surface to the outside of the cuvette wheel 4. Therefore, the liquid L held in the reaction vessel 5 is not heated by the heat generated on the back surface of the Peltier element 27, and the temperature rise of the liquid L is suppressed.

  As a result, even if the automatic analyzer 1 stirs the liquid L held in the reaction vessel 5 using the stirring device 20, the temperature of the liquid L held in the reaction vessel 5 due to the heat generation of the surface acoustic wave element 24. The rise is suppressed. The automatic analyzer 1 is unlikely to undergo thermal alteration of the specimen or reagent held in the reaction vessel 5, and can perform analysis with stable accuracy.

  Here, the stirrer is a Peltier that is in pressure contact with the surface acoustic wave element 34 in addition to the drive control unit 31 including the signal generator 32 and the drive control circuit 33 as in the stirrer 30 shown in FIGS. An RF transmission antenna 35 is formed on the surface of the element 27, the RF transmission antenna 35 is driven by a signal generator 32, and the surface acoustic wave element 34 is wirelessly driven by a drive signal transmitted from the RF transmission antenna 35. May be.

  At this time, as shown in FIG. 9, in the surface acoustic wave element 34, a vibrator 34b made of a bidirectional comb-like electrode (IDT) is integrally provided with an antenna 34c on the surface of the piezoelectric substrate 34a. The surface acoustic wave element 34 is attached to the side wall 5b of the reaction vessel 5 through an acoustic matching layer such as an epoxy resin with the vibrator 34b and the antenna 34c facing inward. The surface acoustic wave element 34 receives a radio wave transmitted from the RF transmission antenna 35 by the antenna 34c, and generates a sound wave (surface acoustic wave) in the vibrator 34b by an electromotive force generated by a resonance action. The RF transmission antenna 35 is supplied with drive power from the stirring device 30 by a contact provided in the drive control unit 31. In this way, the agitation device 30 can have a simple structure and a small configuration.

(Embodiment 2)
Next, a second embodiment according to the stirring device and the analysis device of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the first embodiment, the case where the temperature increase of the liquid held in the reaction vessel due to the heat generated by the sound wave generation unit is suppressed by suppressing the temperature increase of the sound wave generation unit by the cooling unit has been described. In contrast, the second embodiment describes the case where the heat generation of the sound wave generation unit is suppressed by the heat dissipation unit, thereby suppressing the temperature rise of the liquid held in the reaction vessel due to the heat generation of the sound wave generation unit. . The stirrer and automatic analyzer according to the second embodiment are the stirrer and automatic analyzer according to the first embodiment except that a heat sink is used instead of the Peltier element. Reference numerals are used to describe the configuration using only the drawings of the main part.

  The stirrer according to the second embodiment uses a heat radiating plate as suppression means for suppressing the temperature rise of the surface acoustic wave element 24 due to driving. At this time, as shown in FIG. 10, in the stirring device 40, a heat radiating plate 41 attached to the tip of the pressure contact pin 28a is disposed in a recess 4f formed at a position adjacent to the lower portion of each holder 4b in the circumferential direction. . The heat radiating plate 41 is a heat conductive member that conducts heat generated when the surface acoustic wave element 24 generates sound waves to a portion having a lower temperature than the surface acoustic wave element 24, and is made of aluminum, copper, or the like having excellent thermal conductivity. The metal is used.

  For this reason, the stirring device 40 accommodates the reaction vessel 5 in the holder 4b of the cuvette wheel 4, and generates the bulk wave Wb by driving the surface acoustic wave element 24 as described above when the cuvette wheel 4 is stopped. The liquid L held in the reaction vessel 5 is stirred by the bulk wave Wb. The stirrer 40 uses the heat radiating plate 41 as a suppression means for suppressing heat generation of the surface acoustic wave element 24 due to driving, so that the heat radiating plate 41 is pressed against the surface acoustic wave element 24 by the pressure contact member 28 during stirring, and the surface The heat generated by the acoustic wave element 24 is conducted to a low temperature part such as the back surface, and the surface acoustic wave element 24 is cooled.

  In parallel with this heat conduction, the heat conducted from the surface acoustic wave element 24 to the heat sink 41 heats the air in the recess 4f. For this reason, the air whose density has been reduced by heating rises in the recess 4f while entraining the air in the holder 4b in which the reaction vessel 5 is disposed, and is guided to the ventilation hole 4g and discharged from the upper surface to the outside of the cuvette wheel 4. Is done. Therefore, even if the surface acoustic wave element 24 generates heat as it is driven, it is radiated by the heat radiating plate 41, so that the temperature rise of the surface acoustic wave element 24 is suppressed and the temperature rise of the liquid L is also suppressed. As a result, the automatic analyzer is unlikely to cause thermal alteration of the specimen or reagent held in the reaction vessel 5, and can perform analysis with stable accuracy.

  Here, the surface acoustic wave element 24 is driven by controlling the duty ratio in a time division manner or driven at the center frequency. Temperature rise can be suppressed. For this reason, even if the stirring apparatus of Embodiment 1 or Embodiment 2 controls the drive condition of the surface acoustic wave element 24, suppressing the heat_generation | fever of the surface acoustic wave element 24 with the Peltier element 27 or the heat sink 41, it is. Good.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an automatic analyzer equipped with a stirrer according to Embodiment 1. FIG. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a cross-section of part A of the cuvette wheel constituting the automatic analyzer shown in FIG. 1. It is the top view which cut | disconnected the cuvette wheel which accommodated the reaction container horizontally in the position of a wheel electrode. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of a stirring apparatus with sectional drawing of a cuvette wheel and reaction container. It is sectional drawing which shows the holder of the cuvette wheel which does not accommodate the reaction container. It is sectional drawing of the reaction container which shows the flow produced by the bulk wave which leaks in a liquid by driving a surface acoustic wave element, and a bulk wave. It is a figure which expands and shows the B section of FIG. FIG. 6 is a view corresponding to FIG. 4 showing a modification of the stirring device according to the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows the modification of FIG. 8, and shows the perspective view of reaction container with the block diagram of a stirring apparatus. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the stirring apparatus of Embodiment 2 with sectional drawing of a cuvette wheel and a reaction container.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Automatic analyzer 2,3 Reagent table 4 Cuvette wheel 5 Reaction container 6,7 Reagent dispensing mechanism 8 Specimen container transfer mechanism 9 Feeder 10 Rack 11 Specimen dispensing mechanism 12 Analytical optical system 13 Cleaning mechanism 15 Control part 16 Input part 17 Display unit 20 Stirring device 21 Drive control unit 22 Signal generator 23 Drive control circuit 24 Surface acoustic wave element 25 Adhesive layer 27 Peltier element 28 Pressure contact member 30 Stirring device 31 Drive control unit 32 Signal generator 33 Drive control circuit 34 Surface acoustic wave Element 35 RF transmitting antenna 40 Stirrer 41 Heat sink F Flow L Liquid Wb Bulk wave

Claims (10)

In a stirrer that stirs the liquid held in the container by sound waves,
A sound wave generating means for generating a sound wave to irradiate the liquid in contact with the container;
Suppression means for suppressing heat generation of the sound wave generation means accompanying generation of sound waves;
A stirrer comprising:   2. The suppression unit is a cooling unit that contacts the sound wave generation unit and suppresses heat generation of the sound wave generation unit by cooling, or a heat release unit that suppresses heat generation of the sound wave generation unit by heat dissipation. A stirrer described in 1.   The stirring apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a control unit that controls a cooling operation of the cooling unit.   The stirring device according to claim 3, wherein the control means controls the cooling operation of the cooling means based on at least one of the amount, viscosity, heat capacity, specific heat, or thermal conductivity of the liquid.   The stirring device according to claim 3, wherein the control unit controls a cooling operation of the cooling unit based on a driving condition of the sound wave generating unit.   3. The stirring according to claim 2, wherein the heat radiating means is a heat conducting member that conducts heat generated when the sound wave generating means generates sound waves to a portion having a temperature lower than that of the sound wave generating means. apparatus.   2. The surface acoustic wave element according to claim 1, wherein the sound wave generating unit is a surface acoustic wave element that has a piezoelectric substrate having a sound generation unit that generates sound waves formed on a surface thereof, and is attached to the container via an adhesive layer. Stirring device.   The acoustic wave generating means is configured such that an absolute value of a difference between an acoustic impedance of the piezoelectric substrate or an acoustic impedance of the container and an acoustic impedance of the adhesive layer is an absolute difference between an acoustic impedance of the piezoelectric substrate and an acoustic impedance of the container. The stirring device according to claim 7, wherein the stirring device is larger than the value.   The stirring device according to claim 7, wherein the sound wave is a bulk wave.   An analysis apparatus for analyzing a reaction liquid by stirring a plurality of different liquids and measuring optical characteristics of the reaction liquid, wherein the stirring apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9 is used. An analysis apparatus characterized by optically analyzing a reaction solution of a specimen and a reagent.

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