SOLICITATION NOTICE
66 -- RECOVERY - Transmission Electron Microscope
- Notice Date
- 6/11/2010
- Notice Type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- NAICS
- 334516
— Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Contracts Management Branch, 6100 Executive Blvd., Suite 7A07, MSC7510, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892-7510
- ZIP Code
- 20892-7510
- Solicitation Number
- NIH-NICHD-RECOVERY09-092-1
- Archive Date
- 7/10/2010
- Point of Contact
- Patricia Haun, Phone: 301-443-7786
- E-Mail Address
-
haunp@mail.nih.gov
(haunp@mail.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- RECOVERY – TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPE RECOVERY – This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format of FAR Subpart 12.6 as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotations are being requested, and a written solicitation will not be issued for the solicitation number NIH-NICHD-RECOVERY09-092-1. The incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular FAC2005-41 dated May 13, 2010. This acquisition will be processed under Simplified Acquisition Procedures and issued as a Request for Quote (RFQ). The associated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 334516, which has a size standard of 500 employees. This is not set aside for Small Businesses. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), requires a Transmission Electron microscope for the Division of Intramural Research (DIR). EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD A.GENERAL The major evaluation factors for this solicitation include two parts which shall hold equal merit in determining best overall value to the Government. The two parts are as follows: 1)Technical Evaluation - which encompasses experience and past performance of demonstrating the ability to meet the specifications factors listed (see Section B below); 2)Cost/Price Evaluation proposal will be evaluated for realism and reasonableness. B.TECHNICAL EVALUATION Offerors proposals shall be evaluated on the 10 criterion listed below and shall receive an overall rating of, Exceptional Acceptability; Acceptable or Unacceptable. Only proposals that are determined to be Acceptable shall be eligible and considered for award. The definition that will be used in evaluating and rating the criterion is as follows: •Exceptional Acceptability: Equipment exceeds the specified performance or capabilities in a beneficial way has no major weaknesses or deficiencies. •Acceptable: Equipment meets specification standards and any weaknesses or deficiencies are considered minor and are readily correctable or acceptable in meeting the overall requirement. •Unacceptable: Equipment fails to meet the specification(s) and the weaknesses and/or deficiencies are considered uncorrectable without major revisions and would potentially subject the Government to overall risks in performance – either in time and/or money. TECHNICAL FACTORS: 10 Criterion to be evaluated: 1.ILLUMINATION i)Accelerating voltages - magnification calibrated - shall cover a range from 40 kV to 120 KV inclusive with a stability of 2 ppm/min or less. A single operation (button, knob or software command) to turn on the high voltage and saturate the filament shall be provided. Operator programming in increments down to at least 33V must be possible, Further, the lens and coils shall track in 0.5 kV increments so that images remain in focus and at the same magnification when the accelerating voltage is changed between 40 kV and 120 kV. ii)Wehnelt cap shall be conical in shape with provision to adjust filament height (i.e., recess from aperture of Wehnelt cap) to optimize emission and provide maximum coherence of electrons. The same Wehnelt assembly shall be used for either tungsten or LaB6 filaments. iii)Filament shall be pre-centered cartridge type so that the exchange operation consists only of setting the cartridge to the Wehnelt. Tungsten filaments shall be supplied as the standard electron source and must be interchangeable with single crystal LaB6 filaments without modification to the instrument or the use of any additional hardware. iv)Single software selection or button operation shall be provided for venting and lifting the gun chamber for filament exchange. A pneumatic gun lift, incorporating an automatic electrical grounding system, should be capable of raising any portion of the column down to, and including, the specimen chamber. v)The condenser lens system shall consist of 2 elements: a dual condenser lens system with provision for 3 elements if a double gap first condenser is employed to reduce the probe size for STEM applications. Spot zoom illumination shall be provided to limit beam spot shift to 0.5um or less when changing spot size, and to ensure negligible beam astigmatism. vi)A simple one-touch beam formation system shall be included. Beam size to be variable in at least five steps from the TEM imaging mode. vii)A fully balanced two-stage deflection system must be provided. It shall be possible to balance this system for any given specimen plane so that the beam does not tilt when shifted during off-axis high resolution imaging, nor shift when tilted during focused probe dark field imaging. viii)Dark field tilt must be provided. ix)Condenser lens aperture assembly shall utilize metal bellows and swing away mechanism. Three or more condenser apertures will be provided. x)The STEM configuration shall require a minimum of re-alignment switching between STEM and TEM modes. 2.SPECIMEN STAGE i)A five-axis motorized eucentric side entry goniometer stage, with full computer control, to be supplied. All five axes are motorized and encoded to allow full software control of stage functions. Goniometer stage shall be of cantilever design, ensuring tension-free support of specimen while minimizing drift and vibration. End of specimen holder rod shall be free to enable use of quick-load snap-on grid carriers. Stage drift shall be better than 2 nm/min achievable in no more than 5 minutes after specimen movement. Specimen reproducibility shall be better than +/- l μm. Deviation from perfect eucentricity shall be adjustable to 1 µm or better. ii)A quick-change specimen holder shall be provided to accommodate multiple tips for special applications, such as tomography. iii)Tilt must be motor driven with variable speed control linked to magnification. Specimen translation shall be a minimum of 2mm on X and Y axes; Z axis motion must be sufficient to enable proper adjustment for eucentric tilt. iv)Stage translation/tilt shall be by trackball, GUI, or pushbuttons providing stage motion in any desired direction. There must be no rotation of the image when magnification is changed over the entire range of magnification thus eliminating any ambiguity in the direction of observed stage travel relative to the stage controller. v)Stage coordinates shall be saved/loaded to the control computer. The coordinates shall be recallable for later stage repositioning. vi)A double tilt specimen holder should be optionally available. On the second axis of tilt, tilt of at least 30 degrees shall be possible. This axis should be computer controlled and encoded and the degree of second tilt should be able to be recorded by the computer for later recall. If a rotation holder is preferred, the readout will be in degrees from a predetermined reference position. vii)Specimen rods shall have two separated O-rings so that the specimen can be pre-pumped, then pumped to high vacuum by the diffusion pump prior to insertion into the microscope column. viii)The goniometer shall have piezoelectric elements optionally available that are incorporated into the stage drives, and used for fine positioning at high magnification experiments. ix)A five-position specimen holder to allow five samples into the microscope with one insertion of the holder shall be optionally available. 3.OBJECTIVE LENS CONFIGURATION i)A two stags objective lens (objective and mini-objective lens with high contrast and high resolution will be provided. Lattice resolution of 0.2 nm and point resolution of 0.38 nm shall be obtainable. ii)Objective lens aperture assembly must utilize metal bellows and click stop centering. Three or more objective apertures should be provided. iii)Objective lens excitation current stability to be no greater than 1ppm/min. at 120kV. iv)At least five memories for objective lens stigmation controls shall be provided for both normal and low magnification modes. All should be electrically centerable with coarse adjustment of 16X the fine setting. v)An image wobbler shall be supplied for focusing and for astigmatism correction at low and medium magnifications. The wobbler should be an X-Y type, driven by variable rectangular wave in order to readily locate exact focus or desired under focus setting. Frequency should be variable in five (5) steps of approximately 1, 2, 4, 8, and l6 Hz; and amplitude should be variable in five (5) steps of approximately 0.3 to 1.5 degrees. An objective lens wobbler shall be provided for current axis alignment and astigmatism correction at high magnifications. A wobbler for high magnification voltage axis alignment must also be provided. An automatic optimum underfocus capability shall be provided. An operator should be able to select at least three degrees of underfocus. The value of each setting should automatically change with the magnification. vi)A fully automatic through focus system shall be incorporated as standard, allowing fully selectable focus increments and direction of change (over to under, under to over). Recording of up to 50 films in sequence should be possible or unlimited digital images. 4.IMAGE FORMATION i)A 4-lens image forming system shall be provided. The image should be free of rotation due to changes in magnification or electron diffraction camera lengths over the entire range of magnification or camera length. Off-axis chromatic aberration should be automatically corrected so that, even when observing a thick specimen the edge of the image remains sharp throughout the magnification range. ii)A low magnification mode will be available. The low mag mode shall provide the capability to display approximately 14 full screen low aberration/high contrast images within the range of 50X to 1000X without the need to change specimen position or any column hardware. It shall be possible to switch immediately to a programmable survey magnification of choice, or to any position in the high contrast/low mag range, and back again, from any point in the magnification range. iii)Electron diffraction capability will be provided in the following two modes; a) selected area diffraction (SAD), and b) high dispersion diffraction (HDD). iv)Intermediate lens aperture assembly must utilize metal bellows, click stop centering and swing away mechanism. An intermediate lens electromagnetic stigmator with centering controls should be included. v)A moveable beam stop will be standard available. vi)Radial image distortion shall be less than 1.5%; spiral distortion should not exceed 1.0%, Reproducibility of magnification should be within 1.0% or better. vii)Electromagnetic image shift will be provided. Image movement in the TEM mode shall be +/- 10 um in X and Y. viii)Astigmatism correction, for condenser and intermediate lenses, should be possible through electrically centerable electromagnetic stigmators. The condenser lens stigmator shall have a coarse adjustment of 16X the fine setting. ix)Wobblers must be provided as follows: a) High tension wobbler for voltage axis alignment; b. Objective lens wobbler to allow for current center correction. x)It shall be possible to rotate the image +/- 90 degrees in increments of 15 degrees or less using the imaging lenses (i.e.. independent of a tilt/rotate holder)through either control knobs on the console or the TEM Center software (IOS). This rotation to be possible through the magnification range 2,500X to 30,000X. The TEM Center control software must have a specimen-image decoupling feature, which corrects for the applied image rotation thus maintaining the original image translation upon stage movement using either the trackball. xi)When an image rotation is applied using the IOS, this image will remain rotation-free upon changes of the magnification in the IOS-applicable range of magnifications. 5.CONTROL AND DISPLAY SYSTEM i)The system will be computer controlled by a Windows XP based PC. Multiple user logins for the TEM shall be available through the Windows operating system. Remote computer access should be provided via a TCP/IP interface. ii)The TEM control software must allow for different expertise levels with appropriate lock-outs in the control software. User levels must span the range from beginner to experts. iii)Using an external computer, the operator should be able to remotely control operation of the microscope, including magnification changes, alignment, changes in condenser lens settings, operation of any imaging mode, photography, stage movement, and high voltage. iv)A minimum number of multi-function controls should be logically arranged on the operating knobsets. All X/Y functions of the microscope should be controllable from the knobsets and the desired X/Y function should be selectable using the mouse by selecting the appropriate function in the TEM control software, or through dedicated buttons on the knobsets. v)A flat panel display should be provided for display of the microscope's operating conditions and control menus. The following procedures should also be possible by operator selection: a.Utilization of the display and keyboard to locate and graphically display X and Y and both tilt axis coordinates for an unlimited number of stored areas of interest shall be possible. Entries for these locations must be holder specific and must allow in addition for user-specified text. b.Control windows for a complete alignment of the column must be provided. c.Minimum Dose System - Selectable through menu and fully controllable through mouse or from the knobsets. This system consists of three independent modes to include Photo, Search, and Focus. In the focus mode, it shall be possible to observe features surrounding the area of interest without directly exposing the area that will actually be photographed under minimum dose conditions. d.Image Measurement System - Selectable through menu and fully controllable through mouse. This function should include measurement of feature length, feature area, perimeter, angle between lines, and distance between points on diffraction patterns. e.Free Lens Control - Each lens must be set independently from its minimum to maximum excitation. f.Display of vacuum status, including valve schematic, to insure accurate monitoring of vacuum system. g.Display of excitation conditions for the lenses, deflectors and stigmators. h.Optimum Under Focus - Displays and selects the optimum underfocus condition for optimum contrast. i.Personal File - Setup of microscope operating parameters through a "personal file" - allows operators to customize the instrument for their personal preferences, e.g., KV, magnifications, exposure conditions, stigmation, alignment, etc. vi)The following instrument parameters should be displayed during normal operation for operator convenience; KV, spot size, magnification or camera length, image orientation angle, O.L. variable aperture number (with motor driven option), defocus amount, OUF mode number, specimen position, specimen tilt angle, film number, film feeding mode (auto or manual), exposure time, photography mode (auto or manual), film comment, and number of unused films. 6.PHOTOGRAPHIC SYSTEM i)Viewing chamber will include a large window at the front center of the chamber with a hinged binocular microscope, permitting an unobstructed view of the fluorescent screen as desired. Window should be at least 270mm x 170mm high; binoculars should have a magnification of 10X or greater. ii)Two fluorescent screens, electrically isolated from ground, will be provided to permit direct measurement of the current density of the image. A single flat viewing screen, of approximately 160mm diameter, should permit measuring of average brightness over the entire field of the screen. A second movable focusing screen, of approximately 20mm diameter, should be capable of measuring the brightness of a specifically selected spot in the field. It must be possible to tilt the large viewing screen to a plane approximately perpendicular to the optical axis of the binoculars for light optical focusing of the image. iii)A fully automatic film camera with manual override will be furnished. A single switch or menu selectable item should move the viewing screens as necessary and activate an automatic exposure sequence. The exposure system should set exposure time appropriate for the screen brightness range, and activate the shutter. After exposure, the exposed film should be deposited in a light tight magazine under vacuum, a new film advanced into position for the next exposure if in the automode (if in the manual mode, no film is advanced ensuring that there is a free path to a bottom mount camera or other accessory that may require an unobstructed beam path) and the viewing screens returned to their previous positions. Provision should be made for single film advance. In the manual mode, it should be possible to set the exposure time from 0.1 to 180 seconds, and multiple exposures, as desired. iv)The camera must have a capacity of not less than fifty (50) 3 ¼ x 4" cut films in separate holders. One hundred (100) 3 ¼ x 4" sheet film holders with two loading and two receiving boxes shall be supplied. All film boxes/magazines must be thoroughly light tight to facilitate exchange in a lighted room. v)Single lever operation for venting the camera chamber and sealing the lids of the film magazines, to allow handling in normal room light should be provided. A safety must be included to prevent accidental venting of the camera chamber. vi)Film boxes must be loaded into the microscope via access at the front of the console. vii)A data recording system for exposed films shall be provided. The following information should be printed on the film and displayed on the microscope's CRT; a. magnification or camera length: 4 digits with floating decimal: b. micron bar and value; c. accelerating voltage: 5 digits with floating decimal; d. film number: 4 digits; e. operator code: 2 alphanumeric characters; f. text: 18 or more characters viii)A film data memory function should be supplied to store the pertinent information on the 50 most recently exposed films, including film number, operator I.D., and text. 7.DIGITAL CAMERA SYSTEM. System to include Gatan-894.20U.2 Bottom mount 2K X 2K Ultrascan 1000 CCD Camera system complete with suitable computer separate from that of the TEM, 23” inch LCD display, installation and training for described digital camera system. 8.VACUUM SYSTEM i)A cascade diffusion pump or other pumping system without ion or cryopump, should be provided. The system should provide a working pressure of 4 x 10-5 Pa or better at the specimen. The partial pressures of hydrocarbons and water vapor should not exceed 4 x 10-8 Pa and 5 x 10-6 Pa respectively. The viewing and camera chambers should be supported by a diffusion pump or other high throughput pump (not ion or cryopump). Sublimation Ion Pumps (SIP) and Turbo-Molecular Pumps (TMP) must be optionally available. ii)An aperture must be placed in the projector lens to enable optimum differential pumping and to provide flexibility for use of the free-run lens control unit. iii)A mechanism to permit simple bakeout of the column and specimen chamber inner walls shall be built in. A timer shall be included for unattended start up and shut down. iv)The microscope should include an evacuation system designed to radially pump the specimen environment to prevent residual gases from contaminating the specimen. v)A dual zone liquid nitrogen cold trap will be provided for the specimen area to effectively trap contaminants from all directions. The trap should be designed in a manner that completely surrounds the specimen with liquid nitrogen cooled surfaces. The liquid nitrogen trap should be of sufficient capacity to last through a normal work day without refilling. Use of the liquid nitrogen trap described above should not limit operation or performance of the microscope to its full capability in microanalysis, specimen tilt- or any other normal microscope functions. The anti-contamination trap should be provided with an immersion heater to boil off any excess liquid nitrogen from the supply dewar after its use, or before column is opened to atmosphere. vi)An appropriate number of gauges will be supplied to adequately monitor the vacuum system. vii)The specimen exchange mechanism will be equipped with a moving double O-ring seal to insure stable high vacuum in the specimen area at all times. The volume between the O-rings should be evacuated to high vacuum prior to specimen insertion and continuously pumped during normal microscope operation. viii)A film desiccator, capable of holding up to two 50-film loading boxes for the microscope camera, will be optionally available. This unit shall be equipped with its own vacuum pump and operate from a standard 110/120V, 15A power source. ix)An appropriate closed loop water recirculator having a water cooled condenser will be furnished with the microscope to supply temperature controlled refrigerated water to the microscope's lenses and vacuum system. The unit should be connected in such a way as to automatically provide proper cooling down of lenses and vacuum pumps after the microscope is shut off. x)Critical valves should be pneumatically operated to provide positive failsafe closure in the event of electrical failure. A suitable air compressor will be supplied with the microscope and properly interfaced to vacuum logic of the instrument. 9.WARRANTY i)Price quoted shall include a warranty of one full year commencing at the completion of the installation. During the warranty period, vendor shall assume responsibility for any and all defects in materials, workmanship and performance. Vendor shall make two preventive maintenance inspections per year of the equipment for cleaning and adjustment of all instrument components as necessary. Emergency service shall be provided as needed on an unlimited basis at no additional cost. ii)At the expiration of the warranty period, the aforementioned service must be available on a continuing basis through an annual contract agreement. 10.GENERAL i)Servicing must be by established national service network directly employed by U.S. supplier and permit direct telephone contact with competent engineers trained on equipment described above. On location emergency service should be available within an average of 72 hours for inoperable equipment, barring uncontrollable delays such as unavailability of public transportation, weather, etc. ii)Vendor should make all necessary service connections to appropriate facilities supplied at the installation site and must prove all instrument guarantees on site prior to acceptance by buyer. Vendor shall provide on location training to thoroughly familiarize operator(s) with the proper operation and routine care of the instrument, immediately following its installation in buyer's laboratory- and after all performance guarantees have been demonstrated as per published specifications. iii)Vendor shall further provide, at no additional charge, a minimum of 4 days training at the user’s facility. This training should be at a mutually agreeable time typically some 30 to 60 days following installation so that users may first familiarize themselves with basic controls and operation of the microscope. The training should include basic theory, physical operation- maintenance procedures and practical applications. iv)A suitable operator's chair will be supplied. 11. ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS The vendor shall remove existing TEM and vibration platform and treat this equipment as a Trade-in All inland transportation and rigging charges to be included System should also include the following: high tilt specimen retainer, dual axis tomography holder, high tilt tomography cryotransfer system with cooling control unit and turbo pumping station, high resolution, tilt rotate cryotransfer system with vendor installation & training, 2k x 2k pixel CCD camera with PC & LCD and vendor installation and operation training, plus extra day of vendor training. Passive isolation system with on site system installation & tuning. C.COST/PRICE EVALUATION: Offeror proposed price shall be evaluated on realism and reasonable for the Government to purchase the equipment. For a price to be reasonable, it must represent a price to the government that a prudent person would pay when consideration is given to prices in the market. Normally, price reasonableness is established through adequate price competition, but may also be determined through cost and price analysis techniques as described in FAR 15.404. Realism will be evaluated only on the offeror(s) inputs which the Government will use to determine the most probable cost/price for the equipment in a manner consistent with the offeror's proposal. Cost/Price realism analysis will be conducted in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(d). The result of the cost/price realism analysis will be considered in the making the best value tradeoff decision. D.TRADEOFF-DECISION (SELECTION FOR AWARD): Contract award shall be made to the responsible Offeror whose technical and price proposals, in conforming to this solicitation, provides an overall best value to the Government. The Government’s objective is to obtain the highest technically accepted proposal at the most fair and reasonable proposed price. In selecting an offeror for award, offerors are instructed and advised that lowest price technically acceptable shall not automatically determine best overall value. Below is a table for information purposes to demonstrate the overall tradeoff process and an example that the Government may select higher technical acceptable proposal at a higher proposed price due to the overall value. TRADE-OFF TABLE Overall Technical RatingProposed Price Vendor AUnacceptable$80 Vendor BAcceptable$210 Vendor CExceptionally Acceptable$225 Vendor DAcceptable$220 In the example above, the Government could select Vendor C for award because overall best value is justified and supported that $225 is considered a fair and reasonable price for the purchase of the equipment. To select an Exceptional Offeror for $15 greater than the lowest-priced/technical acceptable is considered obtaining the highest quality of equipment for the proposed price. (Overall Exceptionally Acceptable would be a result of receiving 6 or more Exceptionally Acceptable ratings per criteria listed above). REPORTING REQUIREMENTS FOR ARRA The Contractor shall adhere to the following reporting requirements as prescribed in FAR PART 52.204-11.: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) have in place reporting requirements for Contractors that have been awarded a contract using ARRA Funds. Contractors shall complete the quarterly reports which are required under clause FAR 52.204-11. These quarterly reports support the Recovery Act’s goals of transparency and accountability by providing information about recipients and uses of Recovery funds and about the public benefits of these funds. The Contractor is required to report the award following the end of the quarter that the first invoice was submitted. The Contractor shall continue to report about the award every quarter thereafter until it is completed. To ensure timely reporting, the Contractor shall register at FederalReporting.Gov as soon as they receive the awarded contract. Fulfilling the prerequisites for registration may take up to two days. To assist in registration and data entry, FederalReporting.gov offers templates, a recipient reporting data model, webinars, documentation, and reference data and additional links. The recipient reporting data model (available under “Downloads”), provides definitions for the required data. The Office of Management and Budget also offers online training at www.whitehouse.gov/Recovery/WebinarTrainingMaterials. The recipient reporting is a contract requirement pursuant to FAR 4.1501(c) and (d), failure to comply may result in the Government exercising its contractual remedies. Also, failure to comply with the reporting requirements will become part of the Contractor’s performance information under FAR 42.15. The offeror must include a completed copy of the provision of FAR Clause 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications – Commercial Items with its offer. The provisions of FAR Clause 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Items; FAR Clause 52.212-2, Evaluation – Commercial Items; FAR Clause 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions – Commercial Items; and FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders – Commercial Items – Deviation for Simplified Acquisitions applies to this acquisition. The offeror must include their Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS), the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), and the certification of business size. The clauses are available in full text at http://www.arnet.gov/far. Interested vendors capable of providing the Government with the equipment specified in this synopsis should submit their quotation to the below address. Quotations will be due fifteen (15) calendar days from the publication date of this synopsis or June 25, 2010. The quotation must reference “Solicitation number” NIH-NICHD-RECOVERY09-092-1. All responsible sources may submit a quotation, which if timely received, shall be considered by the agency. Quotations must be submitted in writing to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) 6100 Executive Blvd, Room 5Z00, Rockville, MD 20852 Attention: Patricia Haun. Faxed copies will not be accepted PLEASE NOTE: In order to receive an award, contractor must be registered and have valid certification in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) http://www.ccr.gov
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