SOURCES SOUGHT
66 -- Chameleon Ultra II Laser System
- Notice Date
- 12/11/2009
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 334413
— Semiconductor and Related Device Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Rockledge Dr. Bethesda, MD, Office of Acquisitions, 6701 Rockledge Dr RKL2/6100 MSC 7902, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892-7902
- ZIP Code
- 20892-7902
- Solicitation Number
- NHLBI-PB-EB-2010-35-JKS
- Archive Date
- 12/31/2009
- Point of Contact
- Jennifer Schlegel, Phone: (301) 435-0343
- E-Mail Address
-
schlegeljk@mail.nih.gov
(schlegeljk@mail.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice (SS). This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small business; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. The NAICS code for the project is 334413. The small business size standard is 500 employees. The purpose of the proposed acquisition is to identify qualified organizations who can provide a Chameleon Ultra II Laser System to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). This system is a tunable two photon laser source for a widefield two photon excitation scope and a multiphoton selective plane illumination microscope (SPIM) is required. For both applications, the source must provide as high an output power as possible, in order to achieve the maximum two-photon excitation efficiency. The laser must also be wavelength tunable over a broad range, in order to ensure to properly photoactivate and then excite the fluorescently-labeled samples. The Chameleon Ultra II is the only laser that satisfies these requirements, as it is tunable over a broad spectral range (680-1080 nm), and offers more power than competing vendors. The Chameleon Ultra II meets the following required specifications: Performance Specifications -Output average power specification required is >3.3 Watt at peak of Ti:S curve, with a tuning range of 680nm to 1080nm range. Capabilities are required across this entire tuning range to cover our current and future experiments. -Capability for rapid wavelength changes, 40 nm/sec. -Beam quality to specified as M2<1.1 to ensure tightest focusing capability -Beam shape specified as better than (i.e. smaller range) ellipticity = 0.9-1.1. A round beam ensures more efficient coupling of light from the laser into the microscope and minimal astigmatism. -Minimum tuning range required is 680nm-1080nm inclusive without operator adjustments other than request of wavelength. System to tune through atmospheric absorption bands > 900 nm without requirement of external gas purge. -Pulse width approximately 140fSec, important for minimizing dispersion in applications. -System shall have the lowest noise specifications to provide optimal images. A noise spec of 0.5%, or less, is required. Design -Optimized pulse width for maximum multi-photon excitation in a typical confocal microscope. Pulse width must typically be between 120-140fSec across the full tuning range to minimize optical pulse stretching (also called “dispersion” or “chirp”) in the laboratory’s microscope and thus give minimum pulse width and highest peak power and highest multi-photon conversion efficiency at the sample. In order to assure minimum chirping, output pulse must be very close to the bandwidth limit. Systems with pulse width under 100fSec are unacceptable because they have too much bandwidth and thus exhibit large pulse chirping. Typically these short-pulse systems attempt to use excess average power to make up for pulse stretching; however, excess average power will induce more photo-damage in the laboratory’s biological samples. To further ensure minimum pulse chirp, pulse width must be actively controlled and optimized across full tuning range. -Hermetically-sealed construction. Diode pumped laser systems generally degrade due to optical contamination from dust and solvents present in the lab. It is required that the system be hermetically sealed to provide long life and minimal downtime. Required for hermetic sealing is no exchange of gas, or dust from the lab, as evidenced by no light leakage from the interior cavity. -Permanent alignment of head. The laboratory focus is on laser microscopy, as opposed to basic laser research. It is required that the design of the laser be of permanent alignment, with no ports for dist invasion, and no field alignment requirements in order to meet project deadlines. -Design that minimizes downtime. The Ti:S oscillator cavity must be constructed with a single-tuning-element design to eliminate all needs for adjustment, optimization, or cleaning the system. System must include a closed-loop air filtration and recirculation unit to ensure that the cavity is free from out-gassing components, micro-dust particles, and water vapor. System must be able to maintain less that 1% humidity at all times without external purging or other intervention. -User-replaceable pump diodes. Because pump diodes are the single greatest maintenance cost, diodes must be user replaceable and can be changed without the involvement of the laser head, or disturbance of any kind to the experimental set up. Disruptions of this kind, for example, to re-thread the optical fiber through the umbilical can be avoided. -Low noise. Amplitude noise of the system is critical in many small signal applications. Thus the Ti:S is pumped by a single-frequency/single-longitudinal mode pump source so that the noise spectrum will be free of chaotic noise behavior characteristic of multimode pump sources. -Integrated spectrometer. System has an onboard spectrometer capable of monitoring wavelength and bandwidth of Ti:S laser. Spectrometer to be addressable via USB. -Ultra-quiet Chiller. System has a chiller that is all solid-state design. Freon pump-type refrigeration units should not be acceptable as they are noisier and create greater waste heat and mechanical vibrations. Furthermore, the chiller has the capability to be remoted up to 8 meters away for ultimate noise/heat suppression. -System Control. System should be user controllable either via RS232 or via the panel interface located on the power supply. All Capability Statements sent in response to this SOURCES SOUGHT notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to Jennifer Schlegel, Contract Specialist, at schlegeljk@mail.nih.gov by December 16th. 2009, 1:00 PM, EST. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/NHLBI/NHLBI-PB-EB-2010-35-JKS/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892, United States
- Zip Code: 20892
- Zip Code: 20892
- Record
- SN02022116-W 20091213/091211235059-79a58242cd566f3c6770401031869ff7 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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