MICROSCOPE STAGE AND SPECTROMETER
MICROSCOPE STAGE AND SPECTROMETER: The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is conducting market research to determine the availability of qualified businesses capable of providing a Cathodoluminescence Stage and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer Microscope as described in the attached Salient Characteristics. This sources sought announcement is not a request for quote or proposal and the Government is not committed to award of a purchase order or contract pursuant to this announcement. The information resulting from this market research is simply for planning purposes to assist the Government in determining its acquisition strategy. The Government will not pay for any costs incurred in the preparation of information for responding to this notice.
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 334516 Electron Microscope Manufacturing and associated size standard 1,000 Employees applies to this announcement.
All responsible sources may submit a brochure and/or technical specifications detailing the ability of their product to meet the salient characteristics included with this announcement.
Responses to this announcement shall only be accepted through electronic mail addressed to sevans@usgs.gov and must be uploaded and received in their entirety no later than 07/06/2018. Responses submitted by hardcopy or the FedConnect web portal or the FedConnect Message Center shall not be accepted or considered.
Salient Characteristics:
The stage and the spectrometer will be added to an existing petrographic microscope to allow USGS to observe mineral luminescence when minerals are impacted by an electron beam. The associated X-ray spectrometer allows for the identity of the chemical makeup of the minerals that are luminescencing. The desired microscope must be capable of identifying zircon in-situ that can be analyzed by the Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe B? Reverse Geometry (SHRIMP-RG) located at Stanford University, CA. Other applications are summarized on this Web page: https://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/geochemsheets/semcl.html
B? The stage and spectrometer must be designed to work with a petrographic microscope, a Nikon Optiphot Pol.
B? The sample material to be analyzed are standard polished thin sections. The viewing area of the stage must be large enough to study an entire polished thin section (typically 27 by 46 mm). However, sample thickness could be up to 15 mm.
B? A cold cathode source must be the source of the electrons used for imaging. The cold cathode source eliminates the need for coating the sample material with conductive material.
B? The top plate of the stage must be compatible with the working distances of the microscope objectives on the USGS microscope B? 20 mm for the 5x objective and 9 mm for the 10x objective.
B? The stage must incorporate a top plate that accommodates addition of an energy dispersive X-Ray spectrometer.
B? The CL stage must be controlled by separate electronic unit. It must have controls for the electron gun current and voltage; switches to insert samples and operate the stage and the gun, displays and indicators that show the status of the gun and the stage vacuum, interlocks to protect the electron gun; preset controls for typical operation, and a PC interface.
B? The unit must include a vacuum pump that works with the stage.
B? The energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer must have a silicon drift detector with better than 159 electron volt resolution at Fe55, a control system, a multichannel analyzer, software that controls the multichannel analyzer and analyzes the data to report what elements are present.
Evans, Stewart
