Oxford Instruments
Encyclopedia
Oxford Instruments plc is a United Kingdom
manufacturing and research company that designs and manufactures tools and systems for industry and research. The company is headquartered in Abingdon
, Oxfordshire
, England
, with sites in the United Kingdom
, United States
, Europe
, and Asia
. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index
.
in 1959 with help from his wife Audrey, to manufacture superconducting magnets for use in scientific research, starting in his garden shed in Northmoor Road
, Oxford
, England
. It was the first substantial commercial spin-out company from the University of Oxford
and was first listed on London Stock Exchange
in 1983.
It had a pioneering role in the development of magnetic resonance imaging, providing the first superconducting magnets for this application. Further innovations included the development of active shielding, whereby fringe fields hazardous to pacemaker wearers, causing difficulty and expense in siting, were virtually eliminated.
Oxford Instruments was not able to capitalise on these inventions itself, granting royalty-free license to Philips and General Electric whilst developing a joint venture with Siemens in 1989: this was dissolved in 2004.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
manufacturing and research company that designs and manufactures tools and systems for industry and research. The company is headquartered in Abingdon
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, with sites in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index
FTSE 250 Index
The FTSE 250 Index is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions to and demotions from the index take place quarterly in March, June, September and December...
.
History
The company was founded by Sir Martin WoodMartin Wood (engineer)
Sir Martin Francis Wood, CBE, FRS was co-founder of Oxford Instruments, one of the first spin-out companies from the University of Oxford and still one of the most successful....
in 1959 with help from his wife Audrey, to manufacture superconducting magnets for use in scientific research, starting in his garden shed in Northmoor Road
Northmoor Road
Northmoor Road is a road in North Oxford, England. It runs north-south parallel to and east of the Banbury Road. At the northern end is a junction with Belbroughton Road and to the south is a junction with Bardwell Road, location of the Dragon School...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It was the first substantial commercial spin-out company from the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and was first listed on London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
in 1983.
It had a pioneering role in the development of magnetic resonance imaging, providing the first superconducting magnets for this application. Further innovations included the development of active shielding, whereby fringe fields hazardous to pacemaker wearers, causing difficulty and expense in siting, were virtually eliminated.
Oxford Instruments was not able to capitalise on these inventions itself, granting royalty-free license to Philips and General Electric whilst developing a joint venture with Siemens in 1989: this was dissolved in 2004.
Activities
- NanoAnalysis - X-rayX-rayX-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
microanalysis systems for electron microscopes for the characterisation of materials and matter to the smallest scale. Techniques include Energy Dispersive and Wave Length Dispersive X-ray technology and Electron Backscatter Diffraction. It supplies the leading, high performance, unique large area silicon drift detector, X-Max.
- Industrial Analysis - elemental analysis using X-ray Fluorescence (XRFX-ray fluorescenceX-ray fluorescence is the emission of characteristic "secondary" X-rays from a material that has been excited by bombarding with high-energy X-rays or gamma rays...
) and Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES), XRF coating thickness measurement, X-ray tubeX-ray tubeAn X-ray tube is a vacuum tube that produces X-rays. They are used in X-ray machines. X-rays are part of the electromagnetic spectrum, an ionizing radiation with wavelengths shorter than ultraviolet light...
manufacture and Space Technology. Its hand-held XRF analyser, X-MET is used for metals identification, RoHS compliance testing, PMI, lead in paint and drywall testing. Its OES range of products are used in the metal and steel industries for sorting and identification.
- Plasma TechnologyPlasma (physics)In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
- tools and leading-edge processes for the engineering of micro-MicrostructureMicrostructure is defined as the structure of a prepared surface or thin foil of material as revealed by a microscope above 25× magnification...
and nano-structuresNanostructureA nanostructure is an object of intermediate size between molecular and microscopic structures.In describing nanostructures it is necessary to differentiate between the number of dimensions on the nanoscale. Nanotextured surfaces have one dimension on the nanoscale, i.e., only the thickness of the...
. Technologies include plasma etch and deposition, fabrication and HVPE. Its products are used in the research and manufacture of semi-conductors, High Brightness LEDs and photovoltaic cells.
- NanoScience - creating sample environments for measurement at low temperature and high Magnetic fieldMagnetic fieldA magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...
, for physical science applications down to the atomAtomThe atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
ic scale. Its key application is in fundamental physics research for research into quantum computing, for example.
- Superconducting TechnologySuperconductivitySuperconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum...
- production of low temperature superconductingSuperconductivitySuperconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum...
wires.
- Austin Scientific Instruments - supplies, repairs and refurbishes cryopumps and helium compressors for the semiconductor industry -for cryo compressorsCryogenicsIn physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A person who studies elements under extremely cold temperature is called a cryogenicist. Rather than the relative temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit,...
, consumables and refurbishment
- Magnetic Resonance - benchtop NMRNMRNMR may refer to:Applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance:* Nuclear magnetic resonance* NMR spectroscopy* Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance* Protein nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy* Proton NMR* Carbon-13 NMR...
and DNP-NMR (Dynamic Nuclear PolarisationDynamic nuclear polarisationDynamic nuclear polarization results from transferring spin polarization from electrons to nuclei, thereby aligning the nuclear spins to the extent that electron spins are aligned. Note that the alignment of electron spins at a given magnetic field and temperature is described by the Boltzmann...
) for industrial quality control and bioscienceBioScienceBioScience is a peer-reviewed monthly sometimes daily scientific journal that is published by the American Institute of Biological Sciences . The content is written and edited for accessibility to researchers, educators, and students alike...
applications. Industrial applications include rock core analysis, fluorine in toothpaste, oil in sunflower seeds, fat in chocolate
- OiService - service and support network, with offices and representatives world-wide. Includes a specialist MRIMagnetic resonance imagingMagnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance imaging , or magnetic resonance tomography is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures...
service division.
Further reading
- Audrey Wood — Magnetic Venture: The Story of Oxford Instruments (Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2001). ISBN 0-19-924108-2.