JPH08122247A - Analyzer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To dispense with a spectral device and high voltage electric power supply of a tungsten halogen lamp, and downsize an analyzer by providing the laser element or an LED element as a light source, and measuring absorbance in plural wave length areas. CONSTITUTION: A fixed quantity of sample and reagent is injected into a cell 1 being a transparent vessel set on a rotary table, and absorbance of a mixed liquid in the cell 1 after predetermined time passes is measured. Light emitted from light emitting elements 16, 17 and 18 having plural different wave length areas is detected by a single light receiving element 19. The light emitting element having a different wave length can be realized by using a laser element or an LED element. The light emitting element having a desired wave length area is obtained by selecting an element material. For example, a GaAlAs type semiconductor laser and an LED of GaAsP or GaN are cited. The difference in absorbance by a wave length can be separated and detected by separating the quantity of light received by the light emitting element according to time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a chemical analysis device for liquid samples.

The present invention relates to a chemical analyzer for analyzing a sample by allowing light to pass through a mixture of a sample and a reagent and measuring the absorbance thereof, and particularly to analyze components such as blood and urine. Medical analyzer.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a chemical analyzer that transmits light to a mixture of a sample and a reagent and analyzes the components of the sample from its absorbance, white light such as a halogen lamp is used as the light source for the sample and the reagent. The mixture was irradiated and the wavelength component of the transmitted light was spectrally analyzed.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned prior art, the optical system for splitting the transmitted light is large and the device cannot be downsized. The present invention solves this problem and realizes downsizing of a chemical analyzer.

[0005]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a laser device having high monochromaticity, or L
An ED element is used as a light source, and a light receiving element having sensitivity to the wavelength is provided, and the above optical system is formed for a plurality of wavelength ranges. Furthermore, a single light receiving element is used for a plurality of wavelength ranges. By temporally resolving and detecting the signal,
The above spectroscopic optical system was eliminated.

[0006]

The absorbance of the mixture of the sample and the reagent with respect to the light of a specific wavelength is determined by the laser element or L
It is directly obtained by the combination of the light source of the ED element and the light receiving element sensitive to the wavelength. By disposing this system for different wavelengths, the conventional spectroscopic optical system can be eliminated. Furthermore, since a single light receiving element having sensitivity to multiple wavelengths can be shared as a detecting element for all wavelengths, the optical system is further simplified.

[0007]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to examples.

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the optical system of the analyzer of the present invention as a system for measuring absorbance. Further, FIG. 2 shows the overall configuration of the analyzer of the present invention. On the other hand, the optical system of the conventional analyzer is shown in FIG.

First, the function of the analyzer will be outlined with reference to the overall configuration diagram of FIG. This apparatus injects a fixed amount of a sample and a reagent into a transparent container 1 called a cell, which is set on a rotary table 2, and measures the absorbance of the mixed solution in the cell after a predetermined time has elapsed. On the orbit 3 of the rotary table, a sample injection station 4 and a reagent injection station 5 for injecting a sample and a reagent into the cell,
Further, a station 6 for measuring the absorbance and a cleaning station 7 for cleaning the inside of the cell by sucking and discarding the contents of the cell after the measurement are arranged. Different specimens are successively injected into a large number of cells on the rotary table, and the tests are continuously performed.

As shown in FIG. 3, the optical system of the absorbance measuring station in the conventional analyzer uses the lens 9 to squeeze the white light emitted from the halogen lamp 8 and passes through the cell 1 containing the mixture 10 of the sample and the reagent. After that, the wavelength component is spatially decomposed by the spectroscope. A typical spectroscope uses a diffraction grating 11. As shown in FIG. 3, the detectors 12, 13 and 14 are installed for different wavelengths to obtain the absorbance value for each wavelength and quantify the chemical components contained in the sample. In the conventional optical system described above, the spectroscope and the plurality of detectors need to be spaced apart from each other by a distance larger than a certain distance, and thus the volume becomes large and it is difficult to downsize the analyzer. Further, the high-voltage power supply 15 for driving the halogen lamp was also a factor in making the analysis device large.

On the other hand, in the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, the light emitting elements 16, 17 having a plurality of different wavelength bands are provided.
The light emitted from 18 is detected by a single light receiving element 19.
Light emitting elements having different wavelengths can be realized by using a laser element or an LED element. A light emitting device having a desired wavelength range can be obtained by selecting a material for the device. For example, Ga
In the case of AlAs semiconductor laser, the wavelength is 780 nm, Ga
650 nm for AsP LEDs and 4 for GaN LEDs
A wavelength of 90 nm is obtained respectively. The difference in the absorbance depending on the wavelength can be detected separately by shifting the light emitting element with time to emit light and temporally separating the amount of light received by the light receiving element. When the first embodiment is applied to FIG. 4,
The output waveforms of the light emitting element and the light receiving element are shown with the time axis as the horizontal axis. The absorbance of the light emitted by each light emitting element with respect to the wavelengths λ ₁ , λ ₂ , and λ ₃ is the output P ₁ of the light receiving element in the figure,
P ₂ and P ₃ are standard samples (samples that do not contain substances to be detected)
Is quantified by the values divided by the outputs P ₁₀ , P ₂₀ , and P ₃₀ , respectively.

According to the present invention, a plurality of detection systems for spatially required multiple wavelengths can be temporally resolved by a single measurement system. Even if measurements are performed sequentially for multiple wavelengths, the time required for each measurement is less than ms, so the sequence of the entire device in which a cell equipped with a large number of specimens is mechanically moved by a rotary table is delayed. There is nothing to do. As a result, the analyzer can be downsized.

A second embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. Here, the half mirrors 24 to 27 are arranged so that the lights emitted from the plurality of light emitting elements 20 to 24 have the same optical axis. With this arrangement, it is possible to arrange a larger number of light emitting elements than in the first embodiment, so that it is possible to perform measurement for a large number of wavelengths of, for example, four or more types.

A third embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. Here, a multi-wavelength light emitting element 30 that emits a plurality of different wavelengths independently at arbitrary timing is used. In this case, each of the light emitting element 30 and the light receiving element 19 is configured by one. This light emitting element may be a hybrid element in which light emitting elements having different frequency ranges are mounted on one substrate, or may be an element integrated on one chip.
As a device capable of changing the oscillation wavelength of a laser with a single element, there is a system in which piezoelectric layers are formed on both sides of a laser active layer and a desired wavelength is obtained by applying strain to the piezoelectric layers. If an element having such a function is used, a system can be configured with one light emitting element and one light receiving element.

Further, if the lens 29 on the front surface of the light emitting element in FIG. 6 is also integrated on the chip of the light emitting element, the optical system can be further downsized. To integrate the lens into the chip, a grating lens that emits light in the normal direction from the plane of the chip or a hybrid method in which a minute spherical lens is mounted on the chip surface can be used.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. The essence of the present invention is to replace the conventional method in which white light is transmitted through a sample and then spectrally separated, with an optical system comprising a light source having different wavelengths in advance and its light receiving element. By arranging them so that their optical axes pass through a single cell, and by shifting the light of different wavelengths on the time axis to emit light, an analyzer was constructed without using a spectroscope. Especially.

[0017]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) The spectroscopic device becomes unnecessary.

(2) The high-voltage power supply for the halogen lamp becomes unnecessary.

(3) As a result of (1) and (2), the analyzer can be downsized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an optical system showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view showing the configuration of a general chemical analyzer.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a conventional optical system.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing changes over time in output waveforms of the light emitting element and the light receiving element according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of an optical system showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of an optical system showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Cell, 2 ... Rotation table, 3 ... Rotation orbit, 4 ... Sample injection station, 5 ... Reagent injection station, 6 ... Absorbance measurement station, 9 ... Lens, 10 ... Mixture of sample and reagent, 16, 17, 18 ... Light emitting element, 19 ... Light receiving element.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toshihiro Yamada 502 Jinritsucho, Tsuchiura-shi, Ibaraki Machinery Research Institute, Hiritsu Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Hitachi, Ltd., Measuring Instruments Division (72) Inventor, Isao Yamazaki, 502, Jinritsucho, Tsuchiura-shi, Ibaraki, Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Inventor, Hiroyasu Uchida, 882, Ichige, Katsuta, Ibaraki Inside the equipment division

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An analyzer for analyzing a sample by allowing light to pass through a mixture of a sample and a reagent and measuring the absorbance thereof, and a laser element or L as a light source.
An analyzer comprising an ED element and measuring absorbance in a plurality of wavelength ranges.