Award_Criteria_Confocal.doc

BASIS FOR CONTRACT AWARD:

The basis for award will be based on the evaluation within the identified BEST VALUE TECHNICAL SPECIFICALTIONS CRITERIA and price, after initial technical review assuring all of the MINIMUM REQUIRED SPECIFICATIONS are met (in TECHNICAL, OPERATING and TRAINING & ASSISTANCE categories).

The Government will award the contract to the offeror who represents the best value as described below.

Price is equally as important as Best Value Technical Specifications Criteria combined – after all minimum required specifications are met.

BEST VALUE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS CRITERIA

(in order of importance)

1) Piezo-driven scanning platform – mapping stage with at least 100 microns movement in each X and Y directions, and 20 microns in Z directions with 1 nm resolution.

2) 532 (power 50 mW), 633 (power 17 mW), and 785 (power 100 mW) nm laser excitation sources.

3) Integrated confocal imaging spectrometer with three gratings

Preference for 300, 600, and 200 set or 600, 900, and 1800 g/mm set.

4) Efficient (quantum efficiency at least 30% from 500 nm to 800 nm) thermoelectrically cooled (Peltier cooling to approx. – 65 degree C at room temperature) CCD detector (1024 x 256 pixels) with near-IR optimized anti-reflection coating: the detector shall be optimized for high-end confocal Raman imaging.

5) Systems that can provide evidence that when cellulose fiber is under tensile strain, the spectrometer shows a shift to lower wavenumber in the cellulose Raman band seen at 1095 cm-1 (in unstrained sample) will receive a higher technical rating.

Resulting data analysis, reports or signed statements from stated company officers, or similar documentation may be submit as evidence Each BEST VALUE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION will be assigned one of the following ratings from Government Evaluators:

Once each of the five identified elements are evaluated, each proposal will be rated on the same scale.

A RED rating in any one element will result in an overall rating of RED.

Once all technical evaluations are completed, price will be evaluated.

The Government will award to the offeror who represents the best value to the Government once the BEST VALUE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS are PRICE are evaluated, after all minimum .

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