SOURCES SOUGHT
66 -- SOURCES SOUGHT
- Notice Date
- 5/24/2013
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 334516
— Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899-1640, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20899-1640
- Solicitation Number
- AMD-13-SS43
- Archive Date
- 6/22/2013
- Point of Contact
- Lynda M Roark, Phone: 3019753725, Todd D Hill, Phone: 301-975-8802
- E-Mail Address
-
Lynda.Roark@nist.gov, todd.hill@nist.gov
(Lynda.Roark@nist.gov, todd.hill@nist.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This sources sought notice is issued for information and planning purposes only. This announcement is not a Request for Quotation (RFQ) and does not commit the Government to solicit or award a contract now or in the future. No solicitation is available at this time. The purpose of this notice is to identify sources with the requisite qualifications that could provide the products/services stated herein. All businesses, large and small businesses (8(a), SDB, WOSB, HUBZone, VOSB and SDVOSB) capable of performing the requirement indicated below are encouraged to respond to this notice. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) seeks information on commercial vendors that are capable of providing an automated loadlock upgrade for an existing Denton Vacuum Discovery-550 sputtering tool to support nanofabrication in the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), NIST's nanotechnology user facility. The sputtering tool is sited and used in the CNST NanoFab as a shared resource accessible to researchers from industry, academia, NIST, and other government agencies. After results of this market research are obtained and analyzed and specifications are developed for the automated loadlock that can meet NIST's minimum requirements, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a Purchase Order. If at least two qualified small businesses are identified during this market research stage, then any competitive procurement that resulted would be conducted as a small business set-aside. The NIST CNST NanoFab operates a Denton Vacuum Discovery-550 sputtering tool to deposit thin films of various metals and insulators. It is a heavily subscribed by the NanoFab users. In its present condition, each user must spend an average of 60 minutes to perform one sputtering run. Of these 60 minutes, 45 are required to pump the chamber down from atmospheric pressure to the required 4 x 10-4 Pa (3 x 10-6 Torr) after loading the wafer. These 45 minutes can be reduced to 10 minutes by upgrading the tool with an automated loading chamber ("loadlock") system allowing the main chamber to remain under high vacuum during sample insertions, thus reducing the total run time from 60 to 25 minutes. The upgrade shall enable the operator to load a wafer without breaking the vacuum in the sputter tool chamber, and through software control automatically evacuate the loadlock, open an intra-chamber gate valve, transfer the wafer to the sputter tool, retract the loadlock manipulator, close the gate valve, and commence a pre-programmed sputter deposition process. After the process is completed, the loadlock system shall automatically return the wafer to the loadlock for removal by the user. This upgrade will more than double the throughput of this tool and thereby increase both productivity and customer satisfaction. 1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION: a. The loadlock system shall upgrade a Denton Vacuum Discovery-550 sputtering tool. b. The loadlock shall mate to an existing size-10 CF-flanged port on the sputtering tool (flange outer diameter 254 mm, nominal tube diameter 203 mm, bolt circle 232 mm, 24 bolt holes). c. The loadlock shall be equipped with a motorized manipulator arm to transfer a wafer placed on a carrier plate into and out of the sputtering chamber. d. The transfer sequences and sputter deposition process shall be completely automatic and consist of the following steps: pump down the loadlock to a suitable transfer pressure; open the gate valve; transfer the wafer carrier plate into the sputter chamber using a motorized manipulator; retract the loadlock manipulator; close the gate valve; pump down the sputter chamber to its base pressure; run the sputter deposition process; open the gate valve, transfer the carrier plate back into the loadlock; close the gate valve; and vent the loadlock to atmospheric pressure. e. The loadlock and transfer mechanism shall be compatible with the existing sputtering tool features, including wafer heating to 400 ⁰C, carrier plate rotation, and wafer RF bias. 2. CONSTRUCTION: a. The loadlock chamber shall be made of electro-polished 304L-series stainless steel. 3. WAFER TRANSFER: a. The loadlock shall be capable of accepting and transferring one wafer at a time, with wafer diameters of 75 mm, 100 mm, and 150 mm. Wafers shall be transferred by means of a carrier plate fitting the existing rotating platform in the sputter chamber. 4. PUMPING SYSTEM: a. The loadlock chamber shall be capable of reaching a vacuum of 6.6 Pa (5 x10-2 Torr) in ≤ 5 minutes. b. The loadlock may make use of the existing pumps on the sputter system. c. The loadlock shall be equipped with the following: i. Computer-controlled, electro-pneumatic high vacuum gate valve between the loadlock chamber and the sputter chamber; ii. Computer-controlled, electro-pneumatic roughing valve to the loadlock chamber; iii. Computer-controlled, electro-pneumatic vent valve; iv. Vacuum gauge on the loadlock chamber interfaced to the sputter tool system controller; and v. A quick-access-type loadlock door with viewport (minimum diameter 50 mm). 5. SOFTWARE: a. The loadlock software shall integrate seamlessly with the existing sputtering tool software and the programmable logic controller. b. The software shall be capable of an automated, unattended process sequence as described in section 1.d above from wafer-in to wafer-out. c. The software shall provide the following options: i. Manual operation of loadlock and sputter tool; ii. Automatic operation of loadlock and sputter tool: auto-pump, auto-vent and auto-deposition; iii. Operation of the sputter tool without use of the loadlock; and iv. Abort button to stop any process step. 6. TRAINING: The vendor shall provide on-site operation and maintenance training following installation. 7. DELIVERY and INSTALLATION: The delivery and installation of the system in the CNST NanoFab clean room shall be completed in less than 3 months ARO. NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large, foreign, and small businesses. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 334516, as those domestic sources having 500 employees or less. Please include your company's size classification and socio-economic status in any response to this notice. Sources that have the ability to provide this instrument are asked to respond to this notice with a corporate capability statement of a maximum of ten (10) pages to provide a clear and complete narrative of current capabilities to meet the requirements as detailed above. Those sources are requested to respond to this notice and in so doing, provide the following information: organization information to include company name and address, size of business as it relates to NAICS code 334516 (Small Business size standard of 500 employees), current point of contact (including telephone number, facsimile number and e-mail address), list of current GSA federal supply schedules (if applicable) under which your company can provide the products described in this notice, and a list of contracts within the past three (3) years in which a similar instrument was provided. All responses shall be emailed to Lynda.Roark@nist.gov so that they are received no later than 5:00 pm EST June 7, 2013.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/AMD-13-SS43/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899, United States
- Zip Code: 20899
- Zip Code: 20899
- Record
- SN03072228-W 20130526/130524234851-2fbf0d8b6ae32f558b6fb01186e20d00 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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