March 3, 2008 (Pittcon 2008, New Orleans, LA) -- Two of the world’s leading imaging equipment suppliers - Nikon Instruments and JEOL - have joined forces to bring a new benchtop SEM to the market. The two companies will jointly introduce the NeoScope at Pittcon 2008, March 3-6, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“The NeoScope partnership is a natural progression for both companies,” said Michael Metzger, General Manager of Sales and Marketing at Nikon Instruments in Melville, New York. “We’re drawing from our respective expertise in optical and electron microscopy, and offering the optical microscope user an entirely new tool that will have a major impact on life science research and industrial manufacturing quality inspection.”

Peter Genovese, JEOL USA Vice President and General Manager of Sales in Peabody, Massachusetts, added, “We’ve found a natural platform where both companies meet. Nikon and JEOL have products that complement one another in the laboratory and research environment. The science of electron microscopy is very closely related to optical microscopy, but the NeoScope SEM extends the depth of field and resolution far beyond the optical microscope.”

The NeoScope, targeted at the bioscience research and industrial inspection communities, fills the optical microscopist’s need for advanced imaging capability that is both affordable and easy to use. Offering higher magnification without loss of depth of focus, the NeoScope will help accelerate the pace of research in the life sciences, forensics, and failure analysis of manufacturing materials.

The NeoScope images both conductive and non-conductive samples without special preparation. It operates in both low and high vacuum modes and has three settings for accelerating voltage suitable for a variety of applications.

The JEOL NeoScope (www.jeolusa.com) will be demonstrated at Pittcon 2008 in the JEOL booth #4120/4121 and sold by Nikon Instruments (www.nikoninstruments.com).

NeoScope Benchtop SEM Highlights

• Compact Benchtop SEM from JEOL that is simple to use with automated settings for biological and materials samples
• High resolution and depth of field complement optical microscopes or SEM instruments in the lab
• 10X – 20,000X magnification without lens change
• Automatic and manual control with pre-stored recipes
• High and low vacuum modes
• No special sample preparation required
• Secondary electron and backscattered electron imaging
• Three selectable accelerating voltages
• Sample loading to imaging in less than three minutes
• Nikon Instruments is a JEOL-authorized dealer for NeoScope in the U.S.A. and Canada