Bruker AXS Wins Prestigious R&D 100 Award

Bruker AXS Inc. announced today that R&D Magazine has selected its novel XFlash(R) QUAD detector for a 2006 R&D 100 Award. The R&D 100 awards recognize the most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace during the past year.

The XFlash QUAD detector is a key component of Bruker AXS' recently announced QUANTAX(TM) QUAD ultra-fast and sensitive Energy-Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) system for X-ray microanalysis on electron microscopes. The XFlash QUAD detector is the first four channel 40 mm(2) Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) for EDS. Powered by ESPRIT(TM) software, the QUANTAX QUAD delivers significantly faster EDS results across a broad range of applications. It is especiallysuitable for field emission scanning electron microscopes, environmental and low vacuum scanning electron microscopes.

Roger Durst, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Bruker AXS, commented: "Bruker AXS has pioneered the development of Silicon Drift Detectors technology. With their uniquecombination of high counting rate capability and superb energy resolution, these detectors are now widely acknowledged as the new gold standard for EDS."

Thomas Schuelein, Vice President for Microanalysis at Bruker AXS, added: "The new XFLASH QUAD complements our proven, industry-leading 10 and 30 mm(2) single-channel Xflash detectors. It is ideal for optimizing count rate at low beam current conditions and helps make new analysis techniques, like spectral imaging, even more efficient and powerful. Also, our QUANTAX EDS customers can upgrade to theXFlash QUAD in the future, should their applications require this highest level of performance."

The R&D 100 award, selected by an independent panel of judges and the editors of R&D Magazine, "provides a mark of excellence known to industry, government, and academia as proof that the product is one of the most innovative ideas of the year," explained the magazine's Editor-in-Chief, Tim Studt.

The 2006 award follows R&D Magazine's R&D 100 award last year to Bruker AXS for its innovative VANTEC-2000 X-ray diffraction (XRD) detector for the analysis of weakly and/or strongly scattering samples - including smallest sample traces, single crystals, epitaxial thin films, coatings, rocks, polymers, metals, steel, wood, plastics, liquids, nanomaterials and more.