MiniFlex

MiniFlex Overview

X-ray powder diffraction with HPAD detector

MiniFlex XRD system delivers speed and sensitivity through innovative technology advances, including the HyPix-400 MF 2D hybrid pixel array detector (HPAD) together with an available 600 W X-ray source and new 8-position automatic sample changer.

Hybrid pixel array detector (HPAD)

This new direct photon counting detector enables high-speed, low-noise data collection and may be operated in 0D and 1D modes for conventional XRD analysis and 2D mode for samples with coarse grain size and/or preferred orientation.

XRD accessories enhance your MiniFlex

A variety of X-ray tube anodes—along with a range of sample rotation and positioning accessories, together with a variety of temperature attachments—are offered to ensure that the MiniFlex X-ray diffraction (XRD) system is versatile enough to perform challenging qualitative and quantitative analyses of a broad range of samples, whether performing research or routine quality control. The new (Gen 6) MiniFlex X-ray diffractometer system embodies the Rigaku philosophy of “Leading with Innovation” by offering the world’s most advanced benchtop system for powder diffractometry.

X-ray Seamless Pixel Array detector 

The XSPA-200 ER is a compact multidimensional pixel detector for the MiniFlex. The most significant difference between the XSPA-200 ER and the conventional detector for MiniFlex is its high energy resolution. X-ray diffraction patterns measured by XSPA-200 ER have low background intensities because the detector discriminates fluorescent X-rays generated from the sample. The XSPA-200 ER enables the MiniFlex to obtain higher quality measurement data. 

Advanced powder diffraction software

Each MiniFlex comes standard with the latest version of SmartLab Studio II, Rigaku's full-function powder diffraction analysis package. The latest version offers important new functionality; including a fundamental parameter method (FP) for more accurate peak calculation, phase identification using the Crystallography Open Database (COD), and a wizard for ab inito crystal structure analysis.

MiniFlex X-ray diffractometer history

The Rigaku MiniFlex X-ray diffractometer (XRD) is historically significant in that it was the first commercial benchtop (tabletop or desktop) X-ray diffractometry instrument. When introduced in 1973, the original Miniflex™ benchtop XRD was about one-tenth the size, and dramatically less expensive, than conventional X-ray diffraction (XRD) equipment of the period. The original instrument (Gen 1), and its successor that was introduced in 1976 (Gen 2), employed a horizontal goniometer with data output provided by an internal strip chart recorder. The third generation (Gen 3) benchtop diffractometer, introduced in 1995, was called Miniflex+. It provided a dramatic advance in X-ray power to 450 watts (by operating at 30kV and 15mA) and Windows® PC computer control. Both the Miniflex+ and the succeeding generations of bench diffractometers employ a vertical goniometer and allow the use of an automatic sample changer. The fourth generation (Gen 4) Miniflex II benchtop XRD was introduced in 2006 and offered the advance of a monochromatic X-ray source and a D/teX Ultra 1D silicon strip detector. The fifth generation (Gen 5) MiniFlex600 desktop XRD, introduced in 2012, built upon this legacy with 600 W of available power and new powder diffraction software.