Automatic analyzer and optical measurement method for obtaining measurement signals from liquid media

An automatic analyzer for carrying out chemical, biochemical and/or immunochemical analyses of liquid samples, which are present in a sample store of the analyzer, with the aid of liquid reagents, which are present in at least one reagent store of the analyzer, the automatic analyzer comprising:

• a sample store housing liquid samples;
• at least one reagent store housing liquid reagents;
• a plurality of cuvettes configured and arranged for receiving the liquid samples and liquid reagents, each cuvette having a lateral inlet window and at least one lateral outlet window, wherein the plurality of cuvettes is arranged as at least one stationary, linear cuvette array in the analyzer,
• a pipettor configured and arranged to be movable in an x-direction along a line of movement defined by the linear cuvette array, said pipettor including at least one pipetting module configured and arranged to be movable in a y-direction, the y-direction being substantially normal to the x-direction, and at least one hollow needle of said pipetting module configured and arranged to be lowerable in a z-direction into the plurality of cuvettes and also into individual vessels of the sample store and/or the at least one reagent store,
• an optical measurement unit including
• a stationary light-supplying unit including at least one light distributor device configured and arranged to feed the light from a plurality of LED light sources emitting in the UV/VIS/NIR wavelength range in a spectrally different manner to each other into the lateral inlet windows of the individual cuvettes, and
• a stationary detection unit assigned to the lateral outlet windows and which has a plurality of photodiodes,
• a cuvette washing unit configured and arranged to be movable in the x-direction, for cleaning the cuvettes,
• a needle washing unit configured and arranged for cleaning the at least one hollow needle,
• a stationary temperature control unit configured and arranged for setting a predefinable measurement temperature in the cuvettes, and
• wherein each of the at least one light distributor devices has:
• a cavity, and first and second inner surfaces of the cavity are at least partially mirrored and/or diffusely reflective,
• for each LED light source assigned to each respective light distributor device, an inlet opening configured and arranged for feeding the light into the cavity, and
• for each cuvette of the cuvette array assigned to each respective light distributor device, an outlet opening configured and arranged for feeding the light from the cavity into the cuvette,
• wherein at least one of the plurality of photodiodes is fixedly assigned to each cuvette.