The 1980s

Here is a look at how the 80’s shaped the future of Brookhaven Instruments

1981: The company was founded by Dr. Bruce Weiner, a physical chemist, and Dr. Walther Tscharnuter, a physicist
The original BI-200SM goniometer used photomultiplier tubes instead of modern avalanche photodiodes. The 2030AT correlator required a specially designed interface instead of the standard readily available USB interface we use today. All of the measurement software ran on MS-DOS and PC-DOS!
Brookhaven Instruments pioneers high-resolution particle sizing with the DCP and XDC centrifuge.
The BI-8000AT correlator was housed in a 40 lb. computer with a 20 lb. monitor. It came equipped with a whopping 20MB hard drive and utilized 5 1/4″ floppy disks.The BI-90 was one of Brookhaven’s earliest particle sizing instruments. Originally, data could not be saved digitally; measurements had to be printed on a dot matrix printer. A later upgrade allowed the BI-90 to interface with an IBM-AT compatible computer, giving it the ability to view and recall measurements.

The 1990’s

The 90’s brought many new products to the Brookhaven lineup.

1991: The first single-board correlator, the BI-9000AT.
1993: First combined DLS instrument for sizing and ELS, electrophoretic light scattering, for zeta potential.
1994: First backscatter DLS instrument commercially available for concentrates, the FOQELS.
1998: First instrument to combine four light scattering technologies in one instrument – DLS, ELS, SLS, and PALS – for protein, nanoparticle and polymer characterization.

The 2000’s

Innovation lead the way in the 2000’s for Brookhaven Instruments.

2002: Small-volume, flow-through, fixed angle SLS instrument, the BI-MwA, for Size Exclusion Chromatography.
2009: ParSEC, a full-featured Chromatography software package.
2010: Particle Solutions, an integrated software package for running DLS, SLS, ELS, & PALS in one instrument.
2010: Brookhaven becomes part of the Nova Instruments LLC family.
2013: Combining backscatter for protein and nanoparticle sizing, 90º for colloid sizing, and 15º for zeta potential, three angles in one instrument in the NanoBrook Omni.
2021: Brookhaven Instruments celebrates its 40th anniversary!

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