Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF MAY 27, 2011 FBO #3471
SOURCES SOUGHT

66 -- ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPE

Notice Date

5/25/2011
 

Notice Type

Sources Sought
 

NAICS

334516 — Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
 

Contracting Office

Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, Office of Acquisitions and Grants Services, Bldg 50 Room 422, Jefferson, Arkansas, 72079, United States
 

ZIP Code

72079
 

Solicitation Number

1086898
 

Archive Date

6/16/2011
 

Point of Contact

Thomas M Dumas, Phone: 404-253-1253
 

E-Mail Address

thomas.dumas@fda.hhs.gov
(thomas.dumas@fda.hhs.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

THIS IS FOR MARKET RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY, NOT A REQUEST FOR QUOTE OR SOLICITATION. The Food and Drug Administration is seeking business sources, including 8(a) certified businesses, service-disabled veteran owned small businesses, HUB Zone small businesses, small disadvantaged business, veteran-owned small business, and women-owned small businesses to purchase as Brand Name or Equal an Agilent 5500 AFM/SPM System. Salient Characteristics of the instrument: • The system has an environmental chamber which is integrated with the microscope head for fast sample loading, has a gasket seal for complete isolation of gases in the chamber from the scanner and has a minimum of four ports for gas and/or electrical connectors. The chamber is constructed of optically transparent and solvent/acid/base resistant material to allow viewing of the sample during operation. The chamber is air-tight at moderate positive and negative pressures (as opposed to a "purge chamber" requiring a continuous flow of gasses). The system must is compatible and tolerant of a condensing environment as well. Systems with use a simple "purge" chamber are not sufficient and can lead to instrument failure due to gases, fumes, or water vapor damaging the instruments' electronics. • All scanner and detector electronic components are sealed from the sample environment without reducing access to the sample area. This capability is critical for state-of-the-art electrochemistry and environmental control. • The system has heating and cooling options (minimum total range that can be covered is -5C to 250C) which are available for air and solution imaging. All heating and cooling options are compatible with fluid cells and fluid operation or while under gaseous environmental control. Temperature control accuracy is 0.1C or better • All imaging is done with a top down scanner (sample always stationary and tip/cantilever scanning) for sample size flexibility and adaptability of system to inverted light microscopes or other techniques like electrochemistry that require ample access to the sample and tip area. This type of design also removes the danger of scanner damage from fluids. • System should be able to perform oscillating probe AFM techniques in fluid which include both acoustic mode and magnetically coupled mode (MAC). The design allows the ultimate in flexibility due to being able to magnetically excite the probe from either below or above the sample all while not limiting the system to any applications. • The system can accommodate samples of at least 50mm x 50mm and have provisions for imaging samples on glass slides and cover slips. The system is able to resolve the atomic lattice structure of Mica in contact mode deflection images in order to demonstrate high resolution capabilities of system. • System includes fluid cells which fit on interchangeable sample plates for heating, cooling, or MAC and acoustic AC modes. The fluid cells are constructed of Kel-F (or similar) and are available in Teflon, are held with quick clamping mechanism for fast assembly, and are priced economically (< $200 US) so that they can be conveniently replaced or spares provided to prevent cross-contamination of biological experiments or allow multiple users to prepare for experiments simultaneously. • Sample plates/holders are interchangeable with options for heating, cooling, MAC and acoustic AC, or electrochemistry modes. The sample plates are compatible with fluid cells described above, have quick clamping electrode holders for all EC electrodes, and have integral connector for electrochemistry electrode connections. • The systems' scanners have interchangeable cantilever holders that are hermetically sealed from the environment and provide for the following modes of operation: STM, AFM, CSAFM, Oscillating probe/AC-AFM, EFM, LFM, MAC, etc. The system includes such cantilever holders for AFM, CSAFM, AC-AFM, and EFM operation in air, fluid, controlled temperature, or controlled environments. The system includes a large range (90um x 90um x 7um) scanner which is closed-loop in X, Y, & Z axes. Toggling on/off the closed-loop control does not require the user to stop scanning. • Agilent's electrochemical SPM capabilities include a complete kit for high-resolution in situ Electrochemistry-SPM experiments. Electrochemical SPM offers a low-noise potentiostat/galvanostat for in situ EC-SPM studies (both EC-AFM & EC-STM). When combined with temperature control, it is possible to obtain valuable information about electrochemical processes that would otherwise be inaccessible. The addition of environmental control allows imaging with no dissolved oxygen in either aqueous or non-aqueous solutions. Advanced functions and analyses of the EC option include background subtraction, EC plot line integration between cursors allowing integration above or below user-defined line, and integration of current vs. time for charge measurements. • The system provides Single Pass Electric Measurements such as Kelvin Force Microscopy (KFM). Measurements can be faster, with higher spatial resolution and less susceptibility to drift than other "interleave" methods. The KFM option provides quantitative surface potential/work-function imaging with high lateral resolution (~1-2nm) and no variability due to operating frequency or excitation voltage and with an extremely linear response. Surface Potential, dC/dV and dC/dZ measurements are also possible with no additional hardware. • The system must be capable of operating as a standalone unit with all capabilities described above or operating on an inverted light microscope by quickly moving the microscope head onto an inverted light microscope adapter stage. • The system must come with a separate STM scanner. • The system must have the capability to automatically calibrate the spring constant of the cantilever using the thermal tuning method. • The system must come with an integrated vibration/acoustic isolation chamber. • The system must come with an Advanced level of analysis software that provides an easy-to-use desktop publishing environment for fast and accurate metrology report generation, surface analysis workflow for full metrological traceability, allows the user to user to work in a multi-language environment such as English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Japanese or Chinese to build the analysis document, and conforms to ISO standards. • The system must include installation and training of at least 2 days. • The system must include at least a 1 year warranty. Each response should include the following Business Information: a. DUNS b. Company Name c. Company Address d. Current GSA Schedules appropriate to this Sources Sought. e. Do you have a Government approved accounting system? If so, please identify the agency that approved the system. f. Type of Company (i.e. small business, 8(a), woman owned, veteran owned, etc.) as validated via the Central Contractor Registration (CCR). All offerors must register on the CCR located at http://www.ccr.gov/index.asp g. Company Point of Contact, Phone and Email Address GENERAL INFORMATION This Sources Sought Notice is for information and planning purposes only and should not be construed as a commitment by the Government. This is not a solicitation announcement for proposals and no contract will be awarded from this Notice. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this Notice. Respondents will not be notified of the results of this evaluation. The Government will not entertain questions regarding this Market Research. Interested Contractors are requested to provide information, brochures, literature, published price list, etc. Information can be submitted by mail, fax or email to Thomas Dumas, Contract Specialist, thomas.dumas@fda.hhs.gov not later than 12:00 p.m. EST 1 June 2011.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/FDA/NCTR/1086898/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: Food and Drug Administration, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Bldg 62, Silver Spring, Maryland, 20993, United States

Zip Code: 20993
 

Record

SN02456865-W 20110527/110525235003-f81c16c3867ac28e7e313537d766a899 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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