Company Announcements

Leica Microsystems named Optical Analysis as its new exclusive regional dealer for New England for industrial microscope and imaging equipment sales.

Leica Microsystems’ exclusive South Central US regional dealer McBain Systems expanded its market coverage for microscope imaging products to industrial, educational and forensic customers to include Southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Max Planck Innovation granted Leica Microsystems, Wetzlar, an exclusive license for implementing GSDIM (ground state depletion microscopy followed by individual molecular return) optical microscopes, which achieve image resolution in the nanometer range.

Carl Zeiss MicroImaging GmbH received a license from the University of California for Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM), which overcomes the classic diffraction limit to resolution by combining a special illumination pattern with computational image analysis.

Agilent and Stanford University are collaborating on a new class of nanoscale devices using a combination of scanning probe microscopy and atomic layer deposition.

In November, Hitachi High-Technologies announced that it filed a patent infringement suit against FEI in the Tokyo District Court related to several patents, including those related to micro-sampling technology used in its focused ion beam electron microscopy systems. FEI stated it intends to vigorously defend its interest.

Product Introductions

Carl Zeiss AG introduced DirectFRAP imaging systems for photomanipulation with laser light.

Carl Zeiss AG launched: the ELYRA S.1 for the use of super resolution (SR) SIM technology on a standard microscope stand; the ELYRIA PS.1 system utilizing PAL-M (photo-activated localization microscopy); and the ELYRIA PS.1, which combines SR-SIM and PAL-M on the same stand and with a laser scanning microscope.

Carl Zeiss AG introduced the LSM 780 laser scanning microscope, featuring a new GaAsP detector technology.

Carl Zeiss AG released the VivaTome for fluorescence microscopy for the visualization of fast processes. It is the result of a collaboration with Aurox.

Nikon Instruments released the A1R-MP multiphoton and confocal microscope system with fast resonant imaging at up to 420 fps.

Thermo Fisher Scientific introduced the Thermo Scientific Escalab 250Xi X-ray photoelectron spectrometer for chemical surface characterization.

Sales/Orders of Note

Hitachi High-Technologies announced in September that shipments of the tabletop microscope TM-1000, launched in April 2005, surpassed 1,000 units.