Chemical analysis apparatus and chemical analysis method

A chemical analysis apparatus for inserting a sample serving as a substance to be analyzed and a reagent into a reaction container and agitating them by irradiating sound waves to said reaction container, said chemical analysis apparatus comprising:

• a piezoelectric element generating said sound waves, wherein the piezoelectric element comprises a multi-segmented sound supply portion;
• a measuring unit for analyzing physical properties of the sample;
• a driver for driving said piezoelectric element,
• a controller for operating components of the chemical analysis apparatus, and
• a slant reflecting surface adapted to reflect said sound waves generated by the piezoelectric element and propagated through the reaction container, wherein the slant reflecting surface is disposed opposite to the piezoelectric element with respect to the reaction container and reflects said sound waves in a direction below said sound wave and toward a position where no liquid surface is presented;
• said driver comprising:
• a wave form producing device for producing an oscillation waveform having a fundamental frequency of said sound waves to be irradiated;
• an auxiliary waveform producing device for producing an oscillation wave form having a frequency lower than that of said oscillation waveform;
• a multiplying circuit for creating a multiplied waveform between said waveform and the wave form having the lower frequency;
• and, a power amplifier for power-amplifying said multiplied waveform,
• wherein the driver is configured to select and drive one or more segment of the multi-segmented sound supply portion such as to irradiate a lateral sound wave of the multiplied waveform toward a irradiating zone including a liquid surface of a mixture of the sample and the reagent based on a height of the liquid surface,
• wherein the lateral sound wave and the sound wave reflected from the slant reflecting surface induce a swirling circulation flow of the mixture in the reaction container,
• wherein the lateral sound wave is intermittently irradiated toward the reaction container, and
• wherein, said wave form producing device is configured to perform frequency-modulation with a prescribed frequency width.