Private | |
Industry | X-ray instrumentation |
Fate | Purchased by Olympus |
Founded | 2007 |
Defunct | 2012 |
Headquarters | , |
Key people |
|
Products | XRD/XRF portable instruments |
inXitu was a company based in Mountain View, California, which developed portable X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis instruments. The company name was a combination of the terms in situ and X-ray, portraying the company's dedication to developing X-ray instruments that could be easily transported to the original site of the material being analyzed.
The basis for inXitu began in 2003 when Philippe Sarrazin worked with NASA to file a patent on techniques used to develop the CheMin instrument for the Mars Curiosity rover. [1] Sarrazin left NASA to form inXitu Research, which received two Small Business Innovation Research grants from Ames Research Center in 2004 to continue work on CheMin. [1] inXitu Research merged with Microwave Power Technology (MPT) in 2007 and incorporated as inXitu, Inc. [2] MPT's research and development in high vacuum systems was meshed with inXitu's experience with XRD equipment, and in early 2008 the company released Terra, a commercial field-portable XRD/XRF instrument. [2] Bradley Boyer joined the company as President and Chief Executive Officer in September 2008. [2] [3] inXitu formed a partnership with Innov-X in December 2008, in which inXitu would manufacture XRD equipment for sale under the Innov-X brand name. [4]
Also in 2008, inXitu worked with the Getty Conservation Institute to develop X-Duetto, a portable and non-destructive XRD/XRF device used for the analysis of works of art. [5] [6] It was commercially released as Duetto in mid 2009. [7] [8] The company released the BTX instrument in mid 2009, which is a desktop XRD/XRF device developed from Terra; [6] [9] the second generation BTX-II was released in early 2010. [10]
Olympus Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of optics and reprography products. Olympus was established on 12 October 1919, initially specializing in microscopes and thermometers. Olympus holds roughly a 70-percent share of the global endoscope market, estimated to be worth approximately US$2.5 billion. Its global headquarters are located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.
X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is the emission of characteristic "secondary" X-rays from a material that has been excited by being bombarded with high-energy X-rays or gamma rays. The phenomenon is widely used for elemental analysis and chemical analysis, particularly in the investigation of metals, glass, ceramics and building materials, and for research in geochemistry, forensic science, archaeology and art objects such as paintings and murals.
A synchrotron light source is a source of electromagnetic radiation (EM) usually produced by a storage ring, for scientific and technical purposes. First observed in synchrotrons, synchrotron light is now produced by storage rings and other specialized particle accelerators, typically accelerating electrons. Once the high-energy electron beam has been generated, it is directed into auxiliary components such as bending magnets and insertion devices in storage rings and free electron lasers. These supply the strong magnetic fields perpendicular to the beam which are needed to convert high energy electrons into photons.
Oxford Instruments plc is a United Kingdom manufacturing and research company that designs and manufactures tools and systems for industry and research. The company is headquartered in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England, with sites in the United Kingdom, United States, Europe, and Asia. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
X-ray spectroscopy is a general term for several spectroscopic techniques for characterization of materials by using x-ray excitation.
The International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) maintains a database of powder diffraction patterns, the Powder Diffraction File (PDF), including the d-spacings and relative intensities of observable diffraction peaks. Patterns may be experimentally determined, or computed based on crystal structure and Bragg's law. It is most often used to identify substances based on x-ray diffraction data, and is designed for use with a diffractometer. Release 2019 of the PDF contains 893,400+ unique material data sets. Each data set contains diffraction, crystallographic and bibliographic data, as well as experimental, instrument and sampling conditions, and select physical properties in a common standardized format.
Characterization, when used in materials science, refers to the broad and general process by which a material's structure and properties are probed and measured. It is a fundamental process in the field of materials science, without which no scientific understanding of engineering materials could be ascertained. The scope of the term often differs; some definitions limit the term's use to techniques which study the microscopic structure and properties of materials, while others use the term to refer to any materials analysis process including macroscopic techniques such as mechanical testing, thermal analysis and density calculation. The scale of the structures observed in materials characterization ranges from angstroms, such as in the imaging of individual atoms and chemical bonds, up to centimeters, such as in the imaging of coarse grain structures in metals.
Bruker Corporation is an American manufacturer of scientific instruments for molecular and materials research, as well as for industrial and applied analysis. It is headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts and is the publicly traded parent company of Bruker Scientific Instruments and Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies (BEST) divisions.
Iron-55 (55Fe) is a radioactive isotope of iron with a nucleus containing 26 protons and 29 neutrons. It decays by electron capture to manganese-55 and this process has a half-life of 2.737 years. The emitted X-rays can be used as an X-ray source for various scientific analysis methods, such as X-ray diffraction. Iron-55 is also a source for Auger electrons, which are produced during the decay.
Rigaku Corporation is an international manufacturer and distributor of scientific, analytical and industrial instrumentation specializing in X-ray related technologies, including X-ray crystallography, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray reflectivity, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), automation, cryogenics and X-ray optics.
Miniflex is an X-ray diffraction (XRD) analytical measuring instrument produced by Rigaku. The current instrument is the fourth in a series introduced in 1973.
The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), located in Los Angeles, California, is a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It is headquartered at the Getty Center but also has facilities at the Getty Villa, and commenced operation in 1985. The GCI is a private international research institution dedicated to advancing conservation practice through the creation and delivery of knowledge. It "serves the conservation community through scientific research, education and training, model field projects, and the dissemination of the results of both its own work and the work of others in the field" and "adheres to the principles that guide the work of the Getty Trust: service, philanthropy, teaching, and access." GCI has activities in both art conservation and architectural conservation.
Pittcon Editors’ Awards honoured the best new products on show at the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, or Pittcon, for 20 years from 1996 having been established by Dr Gordon Wilkinson, managing editor of Analytical Instrument Industry Report. On 8 March 2015, the event returned to the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans and this was the last occasion when the awards were presented.
Protein crystallization is the process of formation of a protein crystal. Protein crystals are useful in the study of protein structures for use in medicine, amongst other applications. In the process of protein crystallization, proteins are dissolved in an aqueous environment and sample solution until they reach the supersaturated state. This supersaturated state allows researchers to study the internal structure of proteins. Different methods are used to reach that state such as vapor diffusion, microbatch, microdialysis, and free-interface diffusion. Developing protein crystals is difficult, as the process is influenced by many factors, including pH, temperature, ionic strength in the crystallization solution, and even gravity. Once properly developed, these crystals can be used in structural biology to study the molecular structure of the protein, particularly for various industrial or biotechnological purposes, such as developing cancer treatment.
GRB 011211 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on December 11, 2001. A gamma-ray burst is a highly luminous flash associated with an explosion in a distant galaxy and producing gamma rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, and often followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitted at longer wavelengths.
The Rathgen Research Laboratory is a Research Institute of the Berlin State Museums under the auspices of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It carries out cross-material conservation science, art technology and archaeometry studies of fine arts and cultural artifacts to determine composition, age and authenticity and provide advice on their restoration. It further conducts academic research on scientific issues concerning the care and preservation of monuments and archaeological sites. Founded in 1888 as the Chemical Laboratory of the Royal Museums in Berlin, it is the oldest museum laboratory in world and bears the name of its first Director, Dr. Friedrich Rathgen.
Rosalind Franklin, previously known as the ExoMars rover, is a planned robotic Mars rover, part of the international ExoMars programme led by the European Space Agency and the Russian Roscosmos State Corporation.
Curiosity is a car-sized rover designed to explore the crater Gale on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL). Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, at 15:02 UTC and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17 UTC. The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover's touchdown target after a 560 million km (350 million mi) journey. The rover's goals include an investigation of the Martian climate and geology; assessment of whether the selected field site inside Gale has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life, including investigation of the role of water; and planetary habitability studies in preparation for human exploration.
CheMin, short for Chemistry and Mineralogy, is an instrument located in the interior of the Curiosity rover that is exploring the surface of Gale crater on Mars. David Blake, from NASA Ames Research Center, is the Principal Investigator.
Particle-induced gamma emission (PIGE) is a form of nuclear reaction analysis, one of the ion beam analysis thin-film analytical techniques.