Date
Ref no:
May 7, 2009
IFM-2009-00165
Last day for submission June 22, 2009
of tender
Validity of tender
October 22, 2009
Procurement procedure
Open
INVITATION TO TENDER
You are hereby invited to submit a tender for instrumentation for
Aberration corrected Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy
to the Department of Physics Chemistry and Biology (IFM)
at Linköping University, Sweden
according to the conditions stated in these contract documents.
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1
GENERAL INFORMATION
Introduction
The materials physics research area at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, (IFM),
at Linköping University (LiU) is going to acquire a platform for aberration corrected transmission
electron microscopy.
User agenda
IFM is the leading materials science environment in Sweden and has successfully incorporated
electron microscopy in the research for many years now.
Our scientific attention encompasses issues related to the sub-nm organization of materials’
internal structure and nanoscale particles. We require performance in particular for the study of
interfaces by delocalization “free” imaging. We appreciate that this technology is now available
and mature, which is why we aim to procure the most excellent commercially available platform,
comprising one or more microscopes. Since the platform we aim to acquire is of such delicate
nature that a specialized environment is needed for the ultimate performance, we have initiated
the process to construct a dedicated building.
This department was also recently bestowed with a Researcher position by the Swedish Research
Council, in “Electron microscopy imaging and chemical analysis with atomic resolution in
structural chemistry and Nanoscience”. This acknowledges the skill and prospects of an
expansion of the Linköping electron microscopy laboratory. The new instrument will provide the
necessary hardware to expand our activities, and to illuminate the Linköping strategic initiative
which is supported directly by the vice chancellor.
User profile
The users of our present (S)TEM come from an interdisciplinary department of some 400
employees covering in the context of analytical TEM, research in thin films, advanced materials,
and nanostructures. To date, over 40 PhD:s with a thesis based on electron microscopy as a main
tool for analysis have graduated at Linköpings universitet. The present microscopy lab serves
some 10 core users and 20 occasional users. One professor, associate professor/ researcher, three
assistant professors and two research engineers oversee and maintain it. This environment
attracts each year several international visitors and sabbaticals, to access the microscope
laboratory.
-The average user is trained in high-resolution TEM and conventional (S)TEM, and commonly
use analytical work such as EDS and EELS elemental mapping.
-The experienced user knows to correctly interpret high resolution images using computational
methods, acquires lattice/ atomic resolution images and performs chemical bond profiling/
mapping/ identification, also including computational methods.
-Through international collaborations some users have expertise in the cutting edge equipment
which is relevant for this invitation, e.g. cold-FEG emitters, monochromators, aberration
correctors, and high resolution spectrometers.
The new system will be put to a similar high profile use.
Areas of use
We want to obtain knowledge on the structure of; in particular, functional thin films, new phases
in metastable materials, nanolaminates, nanocomposites, interfaces in layered structures and
epitaxial systems as well as extended and localized lattice defects. Materials range from
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semiconductors (GaN, AlN, InN, SiC and alloys) to ceramics (transition metal carbides, nitrides
and oxides), carbon-based materials (DLC, fullerene-like CNx), metals (artificial superlattices and
x-ray mirrors) and nanoparticles (for plasmonics and mesoporous materials).
1.1
CONTRACTING ENTITY
Linköpings universitet
Institutionen för Fysik, Kemi och Biologi (IFM)
SE-581 83 Linköping
Sweden
1.1.1
Contact persons
For questions of an administrative nature, contact Catarina Wireklint, catarina.wireklint@liu.se,
head of University Procurement. For technical and scientific issues, Professor Lars Hultman,
larhu@ifm.liu.se, should be contacted.
If the tenderer wishes clarification of any aspect of the Contract documents, an enquiry must be
submitted in writing directly to the contact person for this procurement, at such point of time
that a response can be delivered six (6) days before the last day for tender submittal.
Enquiries will be answered and published at http://www.liu.se/upphandlingar . The tenderer is
solely responsible for obtaining complete documentation.
1.1.2
Additions/amendments
Complementary additions/amendments according to the contract documents will be announced
at http://www.liu.se/upphandlingar.
1.2
CONTRACT DOCUMENTS
1.2.1
List of documents
The contract documents consists of the following documents and appendices:
 this document - administrative regulations, qualification of the tenderer and technical
specifications,
 public contract (draft), Appendix 1,
 “Declaration of truthfulness”, Appendix 2,
The tenderer is solely responsible for obtaining complete documentation.
1.3
PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE
This is an open procurement procedure, in accordance with the Swedish law of public
procurements (SFS 2007:1091 chapter 4).
1.4
THE TENDER – FORMAL REQUIREMENTS
1.4.1
Validity of the tender
The tender is valid provided that it is:
 signed by an authorised representative of the tendering company,
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 submitted no later than June 22 2009. The tenderer is solely responsible for the timely arrival
of the tender. A tender that arrives later than stipulated, may not be considered,
 valid until October 22 2009, which explicitly must be confirmed in the tender.
1.4.2
Formality of the tender
Formal requirements for the tenders are as follows:

written in the Swedish or English language,

submitted in a closed envelope/package marked with Tender and reference number IFM2009-00165. Please note that tenders submitted by delivery firms will need the outer packaging to
bear the tender number also,

submitted in one (1) original and two (2) complete copies.
Tenders submitted by fax or e-mail will not be accepted, since confidentiality can not be guaranteed.
1.4.3
Submission of tender
The tender can either be sent by post, by express or be delivered personally at the address stated
below.
Visiting and express delivery address:
Mailing address:
Linköpings Universitet
Linköpings Universitet
Registrator, Building Origo
Registrator,
SE-581 83 Linköping
SE-581 83 Linköping
Sweden
Sweden
Office hours are Monday – Friday 09.00 – 15.00. There is a small mailbox outside the Origo
building were tenders can be delivered, but it is very limited in size (27,5 cm * 3.5 cm). Keep in
mind that tenders are submitted at the risk of the tenderer, and to ensure that the tender can be
submitted correctly, the office hours should be taken into consideration.
A notification of reception will be sent upon formal opening of the tenders.
1.4.4
Disposition of the tender
To ensure equal treatment and to facilitate assessment of tenders, the tenderer is requested to
follow the order and numbering of this document.
If no statement is made with respect to a requirement, the contracting entity is entitled to interpret this as the
requirement is not fulfilled.
1.5
EVALUATION PROCESS
Before the evaluation process starts, the formal requirements are checked in accordance with 1.4.
If any of those are not fulfilled, the tender in question may not be taken into consideration.
1.5.1
Qualification of the tenderer
The requirements in section 2 are to ascertain that the tenderer has the necessary technical ability
and capacity to fulfil the obligations concerning this public procurement. To qualify, these
requirements have to be fulfilled.
1.5.2
Examination
Thereafter the requirements indicated as “must” in section 3, will be checked. Only tenders that
fulfil all these requirements will be evaluated further.
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1.5.3
Evaluation
The public contract will be awarded to the economically most advantageous tender considering
the award criteria below, listed in order of priority.
Criteria
1. Technical performance and scientific potential of the proposed solution.
2. Total price
3. Delivery and installation time,
Criterion: 1. Technical performance
The tenders will be evaluated regarding fulfillment of the “should”, “describe” and “specify”requirements, stated in the “Technical specifications” section 3. Tenders will also be evaluated
based on the quality and potential of the proposed solution.
Criterion: 2. Total price
Tenders will be ranked with regard to the lowest total price offered.
Criterion: 3. Delivery time
Tenders will be ranked with regard to the shortest delivery and installation time, conditions for
installation site environment as well as warranty and service.
Final result
The successful tender response will be determined to be the most advantageous tender.
1.6
COMMERCIAL SECRECY
In accordance with the Secrecy Act of Sweden all data pertaining to a procurement matter is
subject to secrecy until an agreement has been entered into or procurement has otherwise been
concluded.
Any data mentioned may be subject to secrecy even after the aforementioned time. Note,
however that only in exceptional cases are data and prices according to the evaluation of the
tender considered to be of such nature that they may be held secret for commercial reasons. With
respect to commercial secrecy for the protection of a tenderer’s data, the requirement is that the
data in question refers to the tenderer’s business- or service conditions and that there is a specific
reason to presume that the tenderer will suffer damages if the data is disclosed.
If a tenderer considers the data submitted in connection with this procurement matter fulfils the
aforementioned requirements for commercial secrecy, the tenderer must submit a request for
commercial secrecy, in writing; with clarification concerning the data referred to and what
damage the tenderer would suffer if the data were disclosed.
The decision whether or not the data submitted by the tenderer fulfils the requirements for
commercial secrecy will be made by the Contracting Entity.
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1.7
NOTIFICATION OF DECISION
At least 10 days before signing the public contract, notification of the Contracting Entity´s
decision in this matter of procurement will be sent in writing to all tendering companies.
Until the public contract being signed, an appeal for reconsideration of this decision may be
made to Länsrätten (the County Administrative Court) in Östergötland County.
Address: Box 406, SE-581 04 Linköping, Sweden.
E-mail: lansratteniostergotland@dom.se.
1.8
AGREEMENT
Please note that there is no legally binding agreement until a public contract is signed by both
parties.
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2
QUALIFICATION OF THE TENDERER
To ensure that the tenderer is suitable as a supplier for the specified procurement, the
requirements below must be fulfilled.
2.1
LEGAL POSITION
According to the Swedish law of public procurement (LOU) the tenderer may not:

Be in bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings, under compulsory administration or subject
to composition or have until further notice ceased making payments or be subject to trade
prohibition.

Be subject to filing for bankruptcy, compulsory liquidation, compulsory administration,
composition or other similar proceedings.

Have been found guilty of unprofessional conduct according to final and conclusive
judgement.

Have been found guilty of serious wrongdoings in professional conduct.

Have failed to fulfil liabilities concerning taxes and social fees.
Furthermore, checks are made that:

The tenderer is registered in the companies’ register, commercial register or similar
register.

The tenderer is registered for reporting and payment of taxes, withheld preliminary tax
and employer fees.
The tenderer must confirm that there are no grounds for exclusion according to the above,
through provision of the documents mentioned below.
Tenderers located abroad
The following national official documents must be enclosed to the tender:
1)
certificate of enrolment in a professional trade register,
2)
certificate that the tenderer has fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of social
security contributions,
3)
certificate that the tenderer has fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of taxes.
Swedish tenderers
The form SKV4820 ”Begäran/Svar Offentliga uppgifter”, SKV4820, applies to verify the
requirements stated above, p. 2-3 and “Registreringsbevis” from Bolagsverket applies to verify p.
1 above.
The information must not be older than 2 months from last day for submission of tender.
All tenderers
Appendix no 2, “Declaration of truthfulness” must also be signed and enclosed to the tender.
2.2
TECHNICAL ABILITY AND CAPACITY
The tender must include description of at least two (2) projects, similar to this one, executed
during the past five (5) years, including references specified with names and telephone numbers
or e-mail addresses for contact persons.
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2.3
SUBCONTRACTORS
If the tenderer intends to engage subcontractors to perform certain parts or services, these shall
be stated, and specified in the tender. Documents, as presented in section 2.1, must be appended
for each subcontractor.
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3
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
General description of the instrumentation
The description concerns a platform based on one or more instruments for aberration corrected
analytical scanning transmission electron microscopy.
A fully functioning system
3.1
Fulfilled
Yes
No
All components and peripherals in terms of hardware and software, with
associated licenses, necessary to achieve the level of integration and technical
specifications stated in the tender, must be included in the offer.
Customer witnessed acceptance test
3.2
Fulfilled
Yes
No
An acceptance test must be made at the factory site, and approved by the
customer, before the system is shipped. The tenderers specified answers and
technical details to the items given in this document must be proven during
this acceptance test.
Spherical aberration reduced TEM digital imaging.
3.3.1
Fulfilled
Yes
No
The platform must include a spherical aberration image corrector.
3.3.2
Some materials of ours are not suitable for investigation at a given acceleration voltage.
Specify the offered range of acceleration voltages which are compatible with the corrector and
included equipment. A wide range of acceleration voltages will be valued.
Describe:
3.3.3
We would like to achieve better than 1 Å point resolution and significantly better information
limit.
Specify the point resolution and information limit at the available accelerating voltages above
and the method for estimating this. Low values are better.
Describe:
3.3.4
To reach the resolutions at the available accelerating voltages, specify to which values the above
mentioned aberrations are reduced and their remaining error bars or confidence intervals. Low
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aberration values are better but are gauged by the confidence of the estimated values.
Describe:
3.3.5
Fulfilled
Yes
No
The platform must be equipped with digital imaging.
3.3.6
We prefer 2k x 2k digital camera imaging of high dynamic range and good point spread function.
Specify which camera(s) is (are) included. Better numbers are valued.
Describe:
3.3.7
Fulfilled
Yes
No
The platform should come with software for image series acquisition and
phase retrieval.
High resolution HAADF-STEM imaging.
3.4.1
Fulfilled
Yes
No
The platform must be capable of clearly resolving the Si 1.36 Å dumbbell
structure in the STEM image, in accordance with the Rayleigh criterion for
resolution, such that 1.36 Å information is not only shown from a fast Fourier
transform of the image.
3.4.2
Specify the resolution or available image information at the available accelerating voltages.
Lower values are better.
Describe:
3.4.3
Fulfilled
Yes
No
The platform must be equipped with at least one HAADF detector.
Specify the integration of the detector(s)
Describe:
High energy resolution STEM-EEL spectrum mapping with high spatial resolution
3.5
Part of our research is to acquire fine structure electron energy loss spectra from metastable
phases arranged in nanostructures and to compare these experimental fine structures with
calculated fine structures (using e.g. Wien2k and FEFF). To do fine structure analysis, of e.g. CK, N-K and O-K edges with high spatial resolution a significant amount of current, from a
highly monoenergetic source is needed. Ideally, we would like to do lattice resolved STEM-
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EELS spectrum mapping of the C-K edge with 0.2 eV full width half maximum of the zero loss
peak.
Specify a table of probe currents (and applied probe convergence angles) at the available
acceleration voltages for spatial resolutions of 10, 5, 2.5, 1.4, 1 and 0.8 Å, at energy resolutions of
0.8, 0.4, 0.3, 0.2 and 0.1 eV. More current is better.
Describe:
PEELS spectrum image acquisition with high acquisition rate
3.6
For spectrum imaging we would typically acquire spectrum maps of 128x128 pixels in the low
loss region and 64x64 pixels in the core loss region. Associated acquisition time per pixel would
be around 0.001 s in the low loss and 0.1 s in core loss. With that, the total acquisition time
sometimes increases dramatically and specimen drift becomes an issue and overhead time has to
be minimized. We would like to acquire 10000 spectra in a total time of about 4 minutes for
0.001 second exposures and in 20 minutes for 0.1 second exposures.
Specify for the offered spectrometer/ corresponding solution, the total time to acquire 10000
spectra (uncorrected, no X binning, full Y binning) in both these cases. Faster is better.
Describe:
EDX spectroscopy
3.7
Fulfilled
Yes
No
EDX spectroscopy and a low background double tilt sample holder must be
included. The performance of the system will be evaluated.
Integration
3.8
Fulfilled
Yes
No
A high level of integration for easy operation should be available. This
includes e.g. simultaneous acquisition of HAADF, EELS and EDX signals in
STEM. Storage of alignments as files in the platform online, for easy switch
between modes (e.g. TEM/ STEM/ nanoprobe/ microprobe) extraction
voltages, STEM probes, acceleration voltages should also be available.
Alignment files of optical attachments such as aberration correctors,
monochromators, energy filters should also be available in easily retrievable
online files. The apertures, sample stage and sample holder should also be
computer controlled and aperture/ sample positions should be possible to
store as described above.
Remote operation
3.9
Fulfilled
Yes
No
The instrument should be available for remote operation (next room).
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Transfer of knowledge and training on the instrument.
3.10
We require training and technical support once the instrument is installed. Specify how you plan
to provide us with this.
Describe:
Options
3.11
The offered platform may include options, e.g. choice of different spectrometers, which can
provide additional functionality or replace already included functionality for different technical
performance, without negatively affecting the integration or functionality of the platform. The
options will be part of our technical and price evaluation. Specify any options, their integration
and effect on the total functionality of the platform.
Describe:
Price
3.12
The price for the offered system must be stated in Euros, SEK, US Dollars or Yen. For
evaluation of the price, the price will be converted to Swedish Krona (SEK). The exchange rate
one working week before final date for tender submissions will be used
. State price :
DELIVERY AND INSTALLATION
Delivery Schedule
3.13.1
Fulfilled
Yes
No
Time for complete delivery must be stated in weeks. If delivery time is stated
in intervals, the longest delivery time will be evaluated. Complete delivery
includes installation and set up of operation at the University.
Specify time for delivery:
Site Preparation
3.13.2
The proposal should state any specific requirements of the site to make it suitable for the
delivery and installation.
Specify:
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Post installation
3.13.3
Accepted
Yes
No
The tenderer is responsible for leaving the site in a clean and tidy condition.
This includes the disposal of all crates, packing, packaging and waste materials.
Acceptance test and sign off
3.13.4
Accepted
Yes
No
The system must pass an acceptance test before it is accepted by the
University.
POST INSTALLATION SUPPORT
Warranty
3.14.1
Fulfilled
Yes
No
Proposals must state what level of warranty is offered to the manufacture and
workmanship of the system and the duration of this. At least one year
warranty must be included. Any additional years of warranty will be evaluated
positively.
Specify years of warranty:
Service
3.14.2
Fulfilled
Yes
No
Proposals must include a 3 year full service contract on all parts and
peripherals. We will evaluate any additional years of full service as above.
Specify number of years of service:
Spare parts
3.14.3
Proposals should state what level of spare parts are delivered with the system.
Specify:
GENERAL
Currency to be bid
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3.15.1
Fulfilled
Yes
No
The price for the offered system must be stated in Euros, SEK, US Dollars or
Yen. For evaluation of the price, a conversion to Swedish Krona (SEK) will
be done. The exchange rate one working week before final date for tender
submissions will be used for evaluation purposes. Fixed price in SEK will be
determined based on actual exchange rate at contract signing.
Currency exchange
3.15.2
Accepted
Yes
No
The fixed price in SEK which must be determined in the contract will be
subject to adjustment for exchanges variation in the following manner. For
exchange variations of more than 2% an adjustment with 80 % of the
variation at time of billing will be done
Payment schedule
3.15.3
Proposals should state the proposed payment schedule for the contract which will be subject to
final agreement with the client. The schedule must include at least 30 % to be paid following
approved final acceptance test.
Specify:
Security
3.15.4
Fulfilled
Yes
No
Security, in favour of the Purchaser, for advance payment must be presented,
in the form of a bank guarantee on demand, along with the public contract.
The bank guarantee must correspond to the value of the advance and be valid
until approved final acceptance. Please see draft contract (7.3) – Appendix 1.
Documentation
3.15.5
The proposal should include the preparation of manufacturing and installation drawings,
including bills of material, shipping documentation, owner's product book, and maintenance
manual (documentation available in both paper and electronic formats).
Specify:
Draft contract
3.15.6
Accepted
Yes
No
The included commercial conditions, appendix 1, is presumed to form the
basis for an agreement between the parties.
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Comments:
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