Patent ID: 8744269

Claim:
An optical measurement instrument comprising: operational modules ( 101 - 107 , 201 , 205 , 206 , 207 , 301 , 303 , 305 , 306 , 307 ), at least one of the operational modules including an excitation light source ( 108 , 208 , 308 ) arranged to produce an excitation beam for at least one of samples ( 151 - 157 , 251 - 257 , 351 - 357 ) to be measured, and at least one of the operational modules including a detector ( 109 , 209 , 309 ) arranged to detect an emission beam emitted by one of the samples to be measured and to produce a detection signal responsive to the detected emission beam, at least a part of a digital communication network ( 110 , 210 , 310 ) arranged to support a digital communication protocol, wherein: each of the operational modules comprises a transceiver ( 111 - 117 , 211 , 215 , 216 , 217 , 311 , 313 , 315 , 316 , 317 ) connected to the digital communication network and arranged to support the digital communication protocol, and the at least one operational module that includes a detector further comprises an analog-to-digital converter ( 118 , 218 , 318 ) arranged to convert the detection signal into a digital form and a digital circuitry ( 119 , 219 , 319 ) arranged to provide digital information based on the detection signal with identifier data arranged to identify from among the operational modules the particular operational module to which the digital information is to be delivered via the digital communication network, characterized in that the optical measurement instrument further comprises another digital communication network ( 120 , 220 , 320 ) and at least two of the operational modules comprise another transceiver ( 121 , 123 , 125 , 127 , 221 , 225 , 227 , 321 , 323 , 325 , 327 ) connected to the other digital communication network for transferring synchronization messages between the at least two operational modules.