Leica Microsystems

Leica Microsystems is a leading global manufacturer of optical microscopes, equipment for creating microscopic preparations ( microtomes and others) as well as related products. There are ten plants in eight countries and sales and service organizations in 19 countries. In more than 100 other countries, partners take over the distribution.

Leica Microsystems has emerged in 1997 as one of three successor companies of which was founded in 1869 by Ernst Leitz Leitz in Wetzlar, so that the company has a long-standing tradition.

History

The history of the precursor Leitz is largely represented in the local product. Beginning of the seventies of the 20th century, developed a collaboration between the Swiss and Leitz optical company Wild Heerbrugg, which led to the founding of the Wild Leitz Group in 1986. In 1990 a further merger with the Cambridge instrument panel including the addition Cambridge instrument itself Heidelberger Microtome manufacturer Jung, Vienna optics manufacturer Reichert and microscopy areas of the North American optical company Bausch & Lomb and American Optical and thus the entire North American microscope industry.

In 1997 the Leica group was divided into three independent companies. In addition to Leica Microsystems Leica Camera arose and Leica Geosystems. After more than seven years in possession of the investment company Permira Leica Microsystems was purchased in July 2005 by the U.S. Danaher Corporation.

Thrice Leica Microsystems or the precursor company has received the Innovation Award of German Industry, the first time in 1984 for the ELSAM acoustic microscope. This device sent ultrasonic pulses in the frequency range of tens of megahertz to gigahertz and two received their reflection echoes. The echoes are then converted into video signals and visualized as spots on a monitor, similar to what happens in a normal ultrasound device. Meanwhile, Leica has discontinued the distribution of Akustomikroskopen however. The two further price gains were made in 2002 for the DUV objective for photomasks and wafers, and 2005 for the fluorescence microscope Leica TCS 4Pi, the commercial version of the 4Pi microscope.

Technologies and products

Light microscopy

Light microscopy continues to provide a focus for the company. These range from relatively simple stereo microscopes and course microscopes to high -end research microscopes, which are only three competitors are (Nikon, Olympus and Zeiss ) worldwide. In the area of ​​research microscopes in addition to conventional light microscopes include various types of laser scanning microscopes, namely confocal laser scanning microscopes after the point scanner principle and the commercialized and marketed exclusively by Leica 4Pi microscopes and STED microscopes. With these two types of microscopes that are based on research by Stefan Hell and colleagues, the Abbe resolution limit can be bypassed so that structures with greater detail and a gain can be represented spatially on structural information.

For conventional microscopes Leica offers a variety of camera systems as accessories, along with part of image analysis software to program, among other things, for the cytogenetic research for the localization of genes.

Special light microscope optics are used in wafer and photomask inspection. The miniaturized structures on wafers and chips can be mapped only with deep ultraviolet light at a wavelength of 248 nanometers or less. However, the cement used in conventional lenses between the lens holds the ultraviolet light was only a limited time and is deteriorating - the lens needs to be replaced. 2001 developed Leica Microsystems is a lens for these applications, which does not require putty and thus no limited life span has ( DUV objective in "Airspace Technology" ). This development was in 2002 awarded the Innovation Award of the German Economy in the category SME.

Cutting and coloring

Leica Microsystems (Leica Biosystems Nussloch ) is a manufacturer of various systems for histology and pathology. With microtome and cryostat thin sections are made of biological tissue and then stained with special dyes, for example, to make visible to benign or malignant tissue changes. In 2003, the first fully automated Leica coloring station for tissue samples to the market, a flexible solution for cytology and pathology laboratories. Microtomes are used in industry for cutting plastics, films or molded parts, auto sheet metal, leather, food and other things.

For the preparation of ultrathin sections for electron microscopy one of the first Ultramicrotomes of Hellmuth custom was developed in Vienna and produced by Leica since the fifties. To date, the Vienna Business is the world leader in sample preparation for transmission electron microscopy.