ic-SECM470

The HORIBA ic-SECM470 is an intermittent contact scanning electrochemical microscope (ic-SECM) that combines electrochemical imaging capabilities with a distance-controlled probe positioning approach inspired by atomic force microscopy (AFM). In standard SECM, maintaining a constant and precise tip-to-sample distance as the probe scans over a topographically non-flat surface is challenging: if the surface has significant height variation, the tip may crash into elevated features or lose electrochemical response as it moves away from depressed areas. The ic-SECM470 addresses this limitation by operating the UME probe in an intermittent contact mode where the probe is oscillated vertically at a controlled frequency, and the change in oscillation amplitude or frequency caused by tip-surface interaction is used to maintain a constant tip-to-sample gap — analogous to tapping mode AFM. This distance regulation allows simultaneous acquisition of topographic and electrochemical information, even on rough, curved, or soft biological samples where standard SECM would be unreliable. The ic-SECM470 is particularly well suited for biological cells, soft polymer films, textured surfaces, and any application where precise distance control is needed for accurate electrochemical imaging. The M470 base platform provides the precision stage and potentiostat, while the ic-SECM470 module adds the oscillation and lock-in electronics for distance regulation. NewRoad provides the HORIBA ic-SECM470 in Israel for biophysics, biosensor, and advanced materials laboratories requiring correlated topographic and electrochemical imaging on complex sample surfaces.