Compact HomeLab™

Rigaku's Compact HomeLab was designed for researchers who want a low-maintenance X-ray system with the ultimate in experimental flexibility.

X-ray beam optimized for small crystals

The foundation of this system is the third generation Rigaku MicroMax™-003, an integrated microfocus sealed tube generator and specialized confocal optic. The optic has been designed for the small crystals that are most frequently seen in today's structural biology labs. The beam size at the crystal is less than 100 μm in diameter, giving superior flux density for crystals smaller than 100 μm in size.

The X-ray tube includes a 3-year warranty, which ensures that your time will be spent measuring samples instead of maintaining your X-ray source. The MicroMax-003 utilizes a 30 μm focal spot running at 30 watts of power. Superior beam stability is maintained by a supplied cooling system.

Detector selected for performance

The standard detector on the Compact HomeLab is the Saturn 724 HG CCD detector. The Saturn 724 HG is optimized for sensitivity, which means that weak reflections are measured more accurately as well as making it easier to screen small crystals.

Optional detectors

Each laboratory has its own special needs. To address this issue, Rigaku offers optional detectors with the Compact HomeLab so that the system can be fine-tuned to match the workflow and sample characteristics of a particular lab. The Saturn 724 HG CCD detector can be replaced with a Saturn 944 HG detector that has a larger active area and thus reducing total data collection times. This might be useful for a lab that performs more full data collection in house and less screening activities. Additionally, an imaging plate detector (R-AXIS IV ++ or R-AXIS HTC) can be substituted for the standard CCD. This might be beneficial for a lab that investigates samples with large unit cells or small samples that require very long exposures.

Finally the Compact HomeLab can be equipped with the Pilatus 100K pixel array detector (PAD). PAD detectors have a number of intrinsic characteristics that are useful in the measurement of X-ray diffraction data. They are photon-counting detectors, which means that weak reflections are measured more accurately than with imaging plate or CCD based detectors. In addition, the readout speed of a PAD detector is so fast that "shutterless" data collection becomes possible, and the high dynamic range compared to CCD detectors means that overloads and subsequent rescans are reduced or eliminated.

Measurement flexibility 

Tying the source and detector together is a κ geometry goniometer that provides maximum experimental flexibility when the need arises to measure data in specific crystal orientations.

The World's Most Popular Software 

The Compact HomeLab is powered by HKL-3000R, the new software suite from HKLResearch that combines instrument control, data processing, and structure analysis all in one package. The underlying integration and scaling algorithms are based on HKL-2000, the most widely used processing software for macromolecular diffraction data.