Patent ID: 7830519

Claim:
An apparatus for measuring a concentration of a target analyte in a sample containing at least one alternate analyte, the apparatus comprising: a light generation module comprising at least three light sources simultaneously generating a plurality of light wavelength bands, each light band of a narrow wavelength, the at least three light sources together comprising a non-monochromatic source; the light generation module switching each of the plurality of light wavelength bands between two or more predetermined intensities; a light combination module comprising a plurality of light -directing optical elements for combining the plurality of light bands into a narrow beam; a focusing module comprising at least one of a module for directing: (1) the narrow beam onto the sample and (2) the light collected from the sample onto a detector; a detector for receiving light having passed through or reflected from the sample; a measurement module for measuring a sum of received intensities of a set of the light bands in the narrow beam which have passed through or reflected from the sample; and a determination module comprising a processor and circuitry for choosing the predetermined intensities of each of the plurality of light bands emitted by the light generation module so that a sum of the received intensities of the light bands which have passed through or reflected from the sample is a function of the concentration of the target analyte.