Patent ID: 7384602

Claim:
A chemical analysis apparatus comprising a rotatably supported structural member, an optical device for detecting a sample mixed with a reagent in the structural member and a positioning sensor for positioning the structural member, the structural member comprising a captor for capturing a specific chemical substance in a sample, and a plurality of reagent containers for carrying reagents to be flowed to the captor, wherein the structural member comprises: a sample supply portion; a separating portion located more towards the periphery from a rotation center of the structural member than the sample supply portion, wherein the sample component is separated by a difference in specific gravity using centrifugation in the separating portion; a sample mixing portion where a portion of the sample is mixed with a portion of the reagents; a pre-separation sample fractionating flow passage for fractionating from the separating portion a pre-separation sample that is a portion of the sample before centrifugation to flow the pre-separation sample to the mixing portion, wherein the pre-separation sample fractioning flow passage connects the separating portion with the sample mixing portion and wherein a connecting portion of the separating portion and the pre-separation sample fractionating flow passage is located more toward the inner periphery of the structural member than a connecting portion of the sample mixing portion and the pre-separation sample fractionating flow passage; a sample component captor, located more towards the periphery of the structural member than the sample mixing portion, for capturing a chemical substance in the pre-separation sample; a separated component mixing portion where a portion of the reagents is mixed with a separated component that is a portion of the sample which has been separated by centrifugation; a separated-component fractionating flow passage for fractionating the separated-component from the separating portion to flow the fractionated separated-component to the separated component to the separated component mixing portion, wherein the separated-component fractionating flow passage connects the separating portion with the separated component mixing portion and wherein a connecting portion of the separating portion and the separated-component fractionating flow passage is located more toward the inner periphery of the structural member than a connecting portion of the sample mixing portion and the separated-component fractionating flow passage and is located more towards the periphery from the rotational center of the structural member than the connecting portion of the separating portion and the pre-separation sample fractionating flow passage; and a separated component captor, located downstream of the separated component mixing portion, for capturing a chemical substance in the separated component, wherein the separated component captor is located more towards the periphery from the rotational center of the structural member than the separated component mixing portion.