The SECOM platform is an integrated solution for correlative light and electron microscopy that enables you to carry out correlative microscopy extremely fast with the highest possible optical quality and overlay accuracy.
The combination of the labeling power of fluorescence imaging and the high resolution structural information of electron microscopy makes correlative microscopy the ideal tool to examine the complex relationship between function and form in biology.
The SECOM is the only product so far that incorporates fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy in the same device by equipping a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an inverted fluorescence microscope (FM).
The platform can be retrofitted on a SEM by replacing the door to the chamber of the SEM. This replacement supports a motorized stage and the objective and light path for the optical microscope.
Due to its integrated design, switching from fluorescence to electron imaging is seamless and rapid. With the automated alignment procedure, you are directly imaging the right location at a high resolution. The SECOM platform comes with an intuitive software package that is designed to easily acquire both types of information. The software package can also control the SECOM stage and the settings for the electron microscope.
The SECOM platform can easily be integrated in the existing workflow and acts as a fully equipped high-end optical microscope, without compromising either optical or electron performance.
This system is being employed worldwide for cancer research, neuroscience, marine biology, and cell biology.
SECOM SR
Combining electron microscopy with super-resolution
The SECOM SR is an integrated CLEM system that combines electron microscopy with a high-resolution optical microscope. In addition to all SECOM features, the SECOM SR also possesses a powerful optical microscope capable of capturing details at the nanoscale. As a result, SECOM SR users can utilize this sophisticated system to investigate complex relationships that potentially exist between the form and function of biological samples.
Integrated CLEM
The ultimate correlative solution
The SECOM is an integrated platform that combines the technologies of two imaging modalities within a single device. SECOM users can easily switch between using the highly accurate and straightforward correlative optical and electron microscopes, which allows for a dramatic reduction in imaging time and overall improved ease-of-use.
Additionally, this integrated platform can be used to correlate information obtained from both the optical and electron microscope at a highly accurate rate, as the exact same cell, tissue or structure of interest is being analyzed by a single instrument.
Focus on Research
Automated overlay
The SECOM platform is equipped with an automated overlay feature that eliminates the need for users to manually overlay electron microscopy and fluorescence microscopy images. By eliminating the use of fiducials, the overall efficiency of measurements is guaranteed, while also ensuring that a limited impact to the sample occurs.
Leading Optical Performance
DELMIC ensures their customers that only the highest quality optical components are used to create the SELCOM. As a result, users can be confident that their system exhibits the highest level of optical performance. Note that all standard SECOM configurations are equipped with multiband imaging.
DELMIC’s unique vacuum compatible immersion oil allows the use of high-numerical aperture objectives in the SECOM platform. As a result, water-immersion and oil-immersion objectives are equally supported by this integrated platform.
Fully Compatible
Use the full potential of your electron microscope
The SECOM can be installed as retrofit onto any SEM that is already being used by simply replacing the vacuum chamber door. As a system that is fully compatible with all standard detectors, the SECOM allows users to benefit from using the full potential of their electron microscope.
Additional features supported by the SECOM include beam deceleration, in-lens detection and immersion mode. Like all other DELMIC products, the SECOM is compatible with all major SEM manufacturers.
Unmatched Overlay Accuracy
Accurate, unbiased and user independent
The SECOM platform comes with a unique and unbiased automated overlay procedure that maintains precise alignment for both EM and FM images. Through the use of DELMIC’s patented cathodoluminescence marker technology, the SECOM’s automated overlay feature provides credible and efficient data for biological research purposes.
The physical principle of this cathodoluminescence technology is based on light that is generated from the location at which an electron beam comes into direct contact with the glass. The camera of the fluorescence microscope detects this light to ultimately use it as a temporary fiducial marker.
User-Friendly ODEMIS Software
The user-friendly ODEMIS software is an open-source platform that can serve as a broad user base. The incorporation of the ODEMIS software with the modular SELCOM system provides a unique and versatile system that can be applied for various research purposes.
Features
The ODEMIS software offers powerful tools that can be used to improve imaging workflow, some of which include auto-focus, export functionality and a history trail that stores all previously used stage coordinates. Advanced users are also able to use scripting interface in the Python to gain full control of the hardware and all of its associated imaging algorithms.
Take Control
Motorized precision stage
The SECOM sample stage is a motorized and closed-loop sample stage that improves the ease and accuracy of navigating samples on the nanoscale. With the use of precision piezoelectric stepping motors and optical linear encoders, this stage ensures that all acquisition procedures are fully automated.
Great flexibility
Modular design
The combination of the ODEMIS software and the modular design of the SECOM system provides users with complete experimental freedom, while also guaranteeing that any future proof setup can be easily upgraded.
Combining Fluorescence Imaging and Scanning Electron Microscopy into One Platform
Leading optical performance
Unrivalled overlay accuracy