Confocal Laser Microscope System A1+

Bring imaging to life: confocal imaging advanced to levels previously unseen.

Nikon’s groundbreaking confocal imaging system offering greater speed, higher resolution and unprecedented system flexibility.

The A1+ confocal laser microscope system is Nikon’s powerful fully-automated confocal imaging system, capable of capturing high-quality confocal images of cells and molecular events at high speed and enhanced sensitivity. Ideal for facilities with a broad range of users, the A1+ has been designed with groundbreaking new optical and electronic technology innovations to provide unprecedented system quality and flexibility. New features such as Nikon’s GaAsP multi-detector unit enables brighter, even higher resolution images than ever before.

Key Features

ER: Enhance Your Confocal Resolution

The A1 ER enhanced resolution Module combines powerful GPU-based processing and specialized deconvolution algorithms to dramatically enhance the spatial resolution of your A1+ or A1R+ confocal microscope with minimal processing time.

The A1 ER Module provides high quality PSF models for Nikon’s high performance objective lenses, taking the guesswork out of deconvolution analysis. Other features include automatic or manual mode for iteration selection, enhanced spherical aberration correction, and robust algorithms for noise estimation and removal.

Galvano Scanner Enables High-resolution Imaging

The A1+ utilizes a galvano scanner which enables high-resolution imaging of up to 4096 x 4096 pixels. In addition, with the newly developed scanner driving and sampling systems, plus image correction technology, high-speed acquisition of 10 fps (512 x 512 pixels) is also possible.

Zebrafish labeled with four probes (captured with galvano scanner) Nucleus (blue): Hoechst33342, Pupil (green): GFP, Nerve (yellow): Alexa555, Muscle (red): Alexa647.	Drosophilasp. embryonic heart	Bovine brain microvascular endothelial cells labeled with MitoTracker (mitochondria, yellow), phalloidin (actin, blue) and Hoechst (DNA, magenta).

GaAsP Multi Detector Unit

Nikon developed the GaAsP multi-detector unit equipped with two GaAsP PMTs and two normal PMTs.

A GaAsP PMT has much higher sensitivity than a normal PMT, thus acquisition of brighter signals with minimal background noise is possible with a GaAsP PMT, even with weak fluorescence, which, until now, has been difficult to detect.

When using resonant scanners, the GaAsP PMT enables low-noise, high-speed imaging.

Sensitivity comparison of GaAsP PMT and normal PMT GaAsP PMT realizes higher sensitivity than normal PMT, thus offering high quantum efficiency up to 45%. * Quantum efficiency indicates logarithm

GaAsP detector	Normal detector

Increased Light Detection Efficiency

The low-angle incidence method utilized on the dichroic mirrors increases fluorescence efficiency by 30%.

Conventional 45° incidence angle method

Reflection-transmission characteristics have high polarization dependence Low-angle
incidence method

Reflection-transmission characteristics have lower polarization dependence

By employing the hexagonal pinhole, higher brightness equivalent to that of a circular pinhole is achieved.

Square pinhole 64% of the area of the circle	30% more light

Hexagonal pinhole

83% of the area of the circle

Nikon’s original dual integration signal processing technology (DISP) has been implemented in the image processing circuitry to improve electrical efficiency, resulting in an extremely high S/N ratio.

Enhanced Spectral Imaging

Acquisition of a 32-channel spectral image (512 x 512 pixels) with a single scan in 0.6 second is possible. Moreover, 512 x 32-pixel images can be captured at 24 fps.

Accurate, High-speed Unmixing

Accurate spectral unmixing provides maximum performance in the separation of closely overlapping fluorescence spectra and the elimination of autofluorescence. Superior algorithms and high-speed data processing enable real time unmixing during image acquisition.

Spectral and unmixed images of five-color-fluorescence-labeled HeLa cells. Specimen courtesy of: Dr Tadashi Karashima, Department of Dermatology, Kurume University School of Medicine

V-filtering Function

Filter-less intensity adjustment is possible by selecting desired spectral ranges from 32 channels that match the spectrum of the fluorescence probe in use and combining them to perform the filtering function.

Increased flexibility and ease of use

NIS-Elements C control software enables integrated control of the confocal imaging system, microscope and peripheral devices with a simple and intuitive interface. Diverse reliable analysis functions are also available.

Specifications

Scan head input/output port		2 laser input ports 3 signal output ports for standard, spectral and optional detector *1
Laser	LU-N3 3-laser unit	405 nm, 488 nm, 561nm lasers are installed ; built-in AOTF *Cannot be used with spectral detector
	LU-N4/LU-N4S 4-laser unit	405 nm, 488 nm, 561nm,640nm laser are installed;built-in AOTF *Use LU-N4S when using the spectral detector
	LU-NV series laser unit	Compatible lasers : 405 nm, 445 nm, 458nm, 488nm, 514nm, 532nm, 561nm, 594nm, 640nm, 647nm; built-in AOTF
Standard fluorescence detector	Wavelength	400-750 nm
	Detector	A1-DU4 4 Detector Unit: 4 standard PMTs A1-DUG GaAsP Multi Detector Unit: 2 GaAsP PMTs + 2 standard PMTs
	Filter cube	6 filter cubes commonly used for a microscope mountable on each of three filter wheels Recommended wavelengths: 450/50, 482/35, 515/30, 525/50, 540/30, 550/49, 585/65, 595/50, 700/75
Diascopic detector (option)	Wavelength	485-650 nm
Diascopic detector (option)	Detector	PMT
FOV		Square inscribed in a ø18 mm circle
Image bit depth		4096 gray intensity levels (12 bit)
Scan head	Standard image acquisition	Scanner: galvano scanner x2 Pixel size: max. 4096 x 4096 pixels Scanning speed: Standard mode: 2 fps (512 x 512 pixels, bi-direction), 24 fps (512 x 32 pixels, bi-direction) Fast mode: 10 fps (512 x 512 pixels, bi-direction), 130 fps (512 x 32 pixels, bi-direction)*2 Zoom: 1-1000x continuously variable Scanning mode: X-Y, X-T, X-Z, XY rotation, Free line
	High-speed image acquisition	—
	Dichroic mirror	Low-angle incidence method, Position: 8 Standard filter: 405/488, 405/488/561, 405/488/561/638, 405/488/543/638, 457/514, BS20/80 Optional filter: 457/514/561
	Pinhole	12-256 µm variable (1st image plane)
Spectral detector*3 (option)	Number of channels	32 channels
	Wavelength detection range	400-750 nm
	Spectral image acquisition speed	4 fps (256 x 256 pixels), 1000 lps Pixel size: max. 2048 x 2048
	Wavelength resolution	80 nm (2.5 nm), 192 nm (6 nm), 320 nm (10 nm) Wavelength range variable in 0.25 nm steps
	Unmixing	High-speed unmixing, Precision unmixing
Z step		Ti-E: 0.025 µm, FN1 stepping motor: 0.05 µm Ni-E: 0.025 µm
Compatible microscopes		ECLIPSE Ti-E inverted microscope, ECLIPSE FN1 fixed stage microscope, ECLIPSE Ni-E upright microscope (focusing nosepiece type and focusing stage type)
Option		Motorized XY stage (for Ti-E/Ni-E), High-speed Z stage (for Ti-E), High-speed piezo objective-positioning system (for FN1/Ni-E)
Software	Display/image generation	2D analysis, 3D volume rendering/orthogonal, 4D analysis, spectral unmixing
	Image format	JP2, JPG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, PNG, ND2, JFF, JTF, AVI, ICS/IDS
	Application	FRAP, FLIP, FRET(option), photoactivation, three-dimensional time-lapse imaging, multipoint time-lapse imaging, colocalization
Control computer	OS	Microsoft Windows® 7 Professional 64bits SP1
	CPU	Intel Xeon E5-2643v3 (3.40 GHz/20 MB) or higher
	Memory	16 GB or higher
	Hard disk	300 GB SAS (15,000 rpm) x2, RAID 0 configuration
	Data transfer	Dedicated data transfer I/F
	Network interface	10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet x2
	Monitor	1600 x 1200 or higher resolution, dual monitor configuration recommended
Recommended installation conditions		Temperature 23 ± 5 ºC, humidity 70 % (RH) or less (non-condensing)

* 1 FCS/FCCS/FLIM is possible in combination with third-party systems

* 2 Fast mode is compatible with zoom 8-1000x and scanning modes X-Y and X-T. It is not compatible with Rotation, Free line, CROP, ROI, Spectral imaging, Stimulation and FLIM.

* 3 Compatible with galvano scanner only.

Applications

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