News

Bruker Introduces Most Advanced Bencthop Stylus Profilometer

Bruker Corporation have announced the release of the Dektak Pro^TM stylus profilometer, the next-generation profiler in the industry-leading Dektak® product line. Incorporating over 55 years of innovation, the new benchtop system provides an expanded measurement area up to 200 mm of full-sample access for semiconductor applications, as well as a shortened time to results with improved user experience and measurement accuracy. Dektak Pro incorporates advancements that solidify the brand as the world’s most advanced stylus profiler, positioning it to address R&D, process development, and QA/QC present and future needs across a host of industrial and research markets.

 

Widely utilised in microelectronics, semiconductor, display, solar, medical, and materials science markets, Dektak stylus profilers are an essential precision metrology instrument found in literally hundreds of production, research, and failure analysis facilities around the world. Dektak systems are employed in both 2D profilometry and 3D surface profiling applications to measure stress, nanometer film thicknesses, and step heights with better than 4 angstrom repeatability. The new Dektak Pro introduces step height and stress measurement updates that expand its usage. A streamlined automatic step detection routine requires less user-defined parameters for a simplified analysis that reduces user-based variability. 2D stress measurement analysis is now more customisable than ever, allowing for user-defined areas and refining precision through artifact thresholds. Fast characterisation of wafer warpage and 3D stress analysis are also made possible by new automatic centering and wafer mapping features.

 

For further information please contact Michael Buckett or read more.

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Expanding the Dragonfly Series

Oxford Instruments Andor, a world leader in scientific imaging solutions, today announces the launch of Dragonfly 400 and new VLE (Versatile Laser Engine), further expanding the award-winning Dragonfly confocal microscopy portfolio.

 

The Dragonfly 200 series offers speed, sensitivity and excellent confocal imaging, making it an ideal system for a wide range of applications, including live cell imaging, development biology, neurobiology, and cancer research. The Dragonfly 200 delivers high-performance spinning disk confocal imaging of all (thick, thin, fixed and live) biological samples. High-resolution image stacks are ready for analysis in mere seconds.

 

The upgraded model adds new capabilities including the new VLE (Versatile laser engine), which allows seven laser lines in a single chassis and up to 10 lines in dual chassis mode, giving researchers the capability to choose more fluorophores for their experiments as well as increasing labelling options on a single experiment. Furthermore, the Dragonfly series is built with modularity in mind, allowing Dragonfly 200 systems to be upgraded to the new Dragonfly 400 model in the field.

 

The new Dragonfly 400 series builds on the key features of the Dragonfly 200 by adding the established HLE (High Power Laser engine) and the 3D-Super Resolution Module. With the Dragonfly 400 series and the high-power laser engine (HLE), the system becomes ideal for an even wider set of research applications. The HLE delivers enough power for super-resolution applications (SMLM) with DNA-PAINT. A single plane image through the 3D super-resolution module delivers axial information over an ~1 μm range with a corresponding axial resolution down to 30 nm. The high-power lasers of the HLE deliver an increase in productivity over the Dragonfly 200 series, allowing even higher productivity in time-consuming applications, such as spatial omics applications and large sample imaging.

 

For the ultimate range of imaging applications, users have the option of choosing the Dragonfly 600 series with Borealis-TIRF and Zoom Illumination optics imaging functionality to make a complete multi-modal system for widefield, Confocal, TIRF, and SMLM (DNA-PAINT & dSTORM) applications. Dragonfly 600 has achieved impressive resolutions down to 6 nm (DNA-PAINT) and allows SMLM in any imaging modality (confocal, widefield, or B-TIRF).

 

For further information please contact Mark Richardson or read more.

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New Bruker NanoWizard Pure BioAFM

Bruker Nanosurfaces introduce the NanoWizard PURE BioAFM, the latest addition to the Bruker BioAFM product family.

 

Based on the renowned NanoWizard technology platform, its new streamlined design delivers best-in-class performance, combining innovation and functionality in a quality instrument.

 

Discover unrivalled capabilities:

• PeakForce Tapping and QI modes for high-resolution imaging and advanced force control on delicate samples
• Integration with advanced optical microscopy techniques
• Outstanding modularity enables versatility and upgrade options

For further information please contact Michael Buckett or read more.

 

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See more with Metro 300, the new counting camera

The new Metro 300 from Gatan is the latest addition to the cutting-edge counting camera family for groundbreaking imaging, diffraction and in-situ studies.

 

Metro 300 offers a solution that enables imaging at lower does rates than ever before on 120 - 300 kV microscopes. With virtually no background noise, detection of the smallest signals is now possible. Users can now capture the finest details at the lowest dose rates and high dynamic range performance ensures the detection of weak diffraction spots is never missed.

 

Features:

• Enables lower dose rates and detection of smallrr signals on your existing microscope
• Stores in-situ, 2k video at <41 fps (Metro) and <50 fps (Metro 300)
• Images the most beam-sensitive specimens
• Captures fine details, and high quality diffraction patterns with virtually no background
• Expansion to 4DSTEM applications with STEMPack3 (utilising STEMx and DigiScan 3)

 

The standard Metro camera is also available for studies at 60 - 200 kV, offering the same level of superior performance as Metro 300.

 

For further information please contact Dr Arnab Chakraborty or read more.

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Oxford Instruments Andor Launches Two New Benchtop Microscopes

Oxford Instruments Andor, a world leader in scientific imaging solutions, today announced the launch of two new benchtop microscopes.

 

Following the successful introduction of the BC43 CF benchtop confocal microscope in 2021, Andor now offers benchtop fluorescence and super resolution models, all have been designed with cost, performance, and accessibility in mind.

 

The BC43 range will bring instant clarity and depth to research studies, whatever the sample, in ways previously only found in larger, more complex, and more expensive systems. The aim of the portfolio expansion is to make fluorescence, confocal, and super resolution microscopy accessible to a much wider user base across different research areas and experience levels.

 

The new BC43 WF is a compact, easy-to-use, and affordable widefield microscope, ideal for automated imaging and smaller budgets. This entry-level system enables hassle-free, high-quality fluorescence imaging, and its in-field upgradability allows researchers to extend into confocal and super-resolution microscopy as requirements or budgets increase.

 

Completing the portfolio is BC43 SR, a microscope that delivers super resolution data quicker and easier than ever before, resolving samples down to 140 nm.

 

Crucially, optical performance is backed up by Andor’s new IQ / OQ quality control programme, which ensures that all BC43 microscopes operate within tightly controlled parameters, and provides confidence that data and experiments are reproducible in the future. This has been developed in collaboration with QUAREP-LiMi, an initiative with over 600 members from academia and industry, which is aiming to improve the reproducibility of light microscopy experiments.

 

More modalities. More performance. More Certainty.

 

For further information please contact us or read more.

 

Image credit : Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cells inside and on top of a 3D hydrogel. DNA is blue, lamin A/C is green, and tubulin is orange. Image credit: Sebastian Amos and Yu Suk Choi, University of Western Australia

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