US_24444 - The Supply, Delivery, Installation, Training, Warranty and Maintenance of Inverted Epifluorescence Microscopes and Monochrome Digital Cameras Including Software

10 new epifluorescence microscopes – specification:

3.1. Epifluorescence microscope:

3.1.1. Simple-to-use, lightweight, portable and robust microscope preferably with relatively small bench-top footprint.

3.1.2. Must have LED transmitted light source (preferably built-in).

3.1.3. Must have shutter or light shield in light path to block light from the transmitted light source and preferably also reduce ambient light.

3.1.4. Must have either a fluorescence filter cube slider or turret with 3 or more filter cube positions (preferably at least 4).

3.1.5. Manual XY stage with coaxial knob place on right side.

3.1.6. Must have coarse and fine focus knob/wheel(s) on left side, preferably both sides.

3.1.7. Must have pair of eyepieces with 10x magnification and preferably a graticule.

3.1.8. Must have pair of folding eye cups.

3.1.9. Must have adapter (and C-mount if required) to mount camera

(see separate camera specification below).

3.1.10. Must have light path selection (at least 2 options: 100% eye pieces or 100% camera).

3.1.11. Phase slider or equivalent included with phase ring(s) suitable for all objectives supplied

(see specification below).

3.1.12. Must have manufacturer approved UK Power Lead / AC Adapter / Power Supply Cord for AC Adapter.

3.1.13. Dust cover for microscope.

3.2. Slide stage with insert(s) suitable for

3.2.1. Slides (standard size).

3.2.2. Dishes (35 mm, 50 mm and 60 mm diameter).

3.2.3. Plates (96, 48, 24,12, 6-wells).

3.2.4. Flasks (T25 and T75).

3.3. LED fluorescence light source

3.3.1. Must provide light with wavelengths suitable for the all the filter sets provided

(see filter set specification below).

3.3.2. Must be mounted directly on microscope (to avoid use of a light guide).

3.3.3. There must be the capability to change the intensity of the LED, preferably of the different excitation wavelengths independently.

3.3.4. Preferably it will have trigger input to turn all LEDs on/off using a TTL (Transistor-transistor Logic) trigger.

3.4. Filter sets fitted in filter cubes:

3.4.1. Must have DAPI (4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) filter set (could be used for transmitted light too).

3.4.2. Must have GFP (Green Fluorescence Protein) filter set.

3.4.3. Must have Cy3 (Cyanine 3) filter set.

3.4.4. Must have Cy5 (Cyanine 5) filter set.

3.4.5. The above could be provided either as single-band filter sets and/or integrated into multi-band filter sets.

3.5. Objectives:

3.5.1. Must have 10X (Numerical Aperture (NA), NA ~ 0.25, air) for phase contrast and fluorescence.

3.5.2. Must have 40X (long working distance, NA ~ 0.55, air) for phase contrast and fluorescence objective.

3.5.3. Must have high quality 40X (short working distance, NA ~ 0.65, air) for phase contrast and fluorescence.

3.5.4. Must have high quality 60x (short working distance, oil or air, NA > 0.9) for fluorescence (and preferably also phase contrast).

3.6. Camera for new (x10) and existing (x10) microscope units:

3.6.1. Must be a monochrome microscope camera suitable for low light fluorescence imaging as well as transmitted-light imaging applications. The camera must be efficient at capturing photons across all emission wavelengths relevant to the filter sets (see filter set specification above). Below are further details of the specification.

3.6.2. Preferably USB computer connection.

3.6.3. Must have ability to mount with C-mount (camera mount) using a lens of circa 0.67x.

3.6.4. Must have ability to modify camera gain.

3.6.5. Exposure times up to at least 2 s or more.

3.6.6. Smallest pixel size must be < 6-by-6 microns.

3.6.7. Must have passive cooling at least, and not require active cooling for most applications.

3.6.8. Must have 12-bit bit depth (or above).

3.6.9. Must have at least 2 mega-pixels on the whole chip.

3.6.10. Must have at least 40 frames per second with full chip.

3.6.11. Capability to bin pixels if required is preferable.

3.6.12. Must have connectors for timing/trigger out, preferably with voltage for the TTL trigger provided by the camera (i.e. internally powered). The camera trigger out should not require external power. Suitable cables must be provided to connect to BNC (Bayonet Neill-Concelman) coaxial connectors on other devices for synchronization.

3.6.13. Computer connection preferably by USB.

3.6.14. Must be provided with very easy-to-use software for capturing still images, timelapse and videos. Preferably, the user interface could be customized/simplified to suite the level in the course/degree. The software must be compatible with Windows 10 and above.

3.6.15. Must have the capability to capture either video or timelapse in a single file, either without compression (e.g. tiff (Tag image file format)) or with lossless compression format (e.g. tiff with LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression).

3.6.16. Must have drivers available for Windows 10 and above for use with opensource MicroManager software, for more demanding requirements such as device synchronization (see trigger requirements on camera specification).

3.6.17. If there are charges per licence, they should be a one-off cost not an annual expenditure.

3.6.18. If camera is externally powered, it must have a manufacturer approved UK power lead / AC Adapter / Power Supply Cord for AC Adapter.