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***THIS IS A COMBINED SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE AND NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE***

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking information from sources that may be capable of providing a Tri-Layer junction system. If no alternate sources are identified, the Government intends to issue a Sole Source Award to Kurt J. Lesker Company (1925 Route 51, Clairton, PA 15025-3681) under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 334516.

NIST has a need for a Tri-Layer system that meets or exceeds the following draft minimum specifications:

1. The Tri-Layer Junction System shall:
   
   
   
   1. Be constructed with materials that are compatible for use in an ISO Class 5 cleanroom.
   
   
   2. Be designed for normal operation at an altitude of 5,500 feet above sea level.
   
   
   3. Be constructed such that any surface that encounters a chemical or gas shall be constructed of material resistant to that chemical or gas.
   
   
   4. Have a cooling water distribution sub-system that shall:
      
      
      
      1. Include a water-to-water heat-exchanger unit that shall have sufficient capacity for all system components excluding the cryo-compressor.
      
      
      2. Have a manifold with single connections for inlet and outlet water.
      
      
      3. Have appropriate flow sensors and interlocks.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   5. Have a gas distribution sub-system that shall:
      
      
      
      1. Include appropriate tubing and valves for three gasses which may include Argon, Nitrogen, and Oxygen.
      
      
      2. Have a manifold with single connections for all three gasses.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   6. Have an electrical sub-system that shall:
      
      
      
      1. Be powered by a single feed of 208 V, three phase power.
      
      
      2. Draw less than 70 amps per feed.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   7. Be able to deposit metal films using techniques according to standards used in the semiconductor industry.
   
   
   8. The system shall be able to operate in an automated, computer-controlled manner:
      
      
      
      1. Specifically, the system shall be able to automatically:
         
         
         
         1. Pump out the load-lock.
         
         
         2. Transfer the wafer to the process chamber and deposit.
         
         
         3. Transfer the wafer from the process chamber to the load-lock.
         
         
         4. Oxidize the wafer.
         
         
         5. Transfer the wafer back into the process chamber to deposit.
         
         
         6. Transfer the wafer to the load lock.
         
         
         
         
      
      
      2. The system must operate according to one recipe or recipe set that can control all the modules.
      
      
      3. The system shall store and edit recipes to control the system using only software and hardware integrated into the system; no other software or hardware is required.
      
      
      4. The system shall store comprehensive log files during process operation.
      
      
      5. The system shall meet all requirements while not being connected to the internet or an external network. It shall be able to function as a stand-alone unit.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   9. Include all computer systems, power supplies, and all ancillary equipment required for the system to operate.
   
   
   10. Include appropriate interlocks to ensure that the system is safely operated.
   
   
   11. Be controlled by software that can control all aspects of the system. This software must also provide users a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that shows users the state of the system, allows users to change the state of the system, allows users to create and store recipes, and allows users to run recipes to automatically run a process on the system.
   
   
   12. Meet the following physical requirements:
       
       
       
       1. The system shall fit into the footprint within the cleanroom as shown in the yellow box labeled “available footprint” in Attachment 1.
          
          
          
          1. Multiple system configurations could satisfy the footprint requirements. The government’s preferred configuration is the umbilical type with a separate control rack connected to the main system with cable bundles.
          
          
          2. The government can make a limited number of rectangular and circular cuts in the wall for the system if necessary.
          
          
          3. The system must fit in this footprint along with any required egress for system operation, user, and maintenance. This explicitly includes the space of a user to operate the system. Access doors may extend past this footprint, provided there is clearance to existing equipment and other structures.
          
          
          
          
       
       
       2. During transport to the final location, the system components shall pass through a freight elevator with doors that are 7 feet 11 inches tall and 8 feet wide. The platform has an entrance door to back length of 9 feet and a width of 13 feet, a cab height of 7 feet 11 inches, and has a weight limit of 10,000 pounds.
       
       
       3. During transport to the final location, the system components shall pass through a corridor with a minimum width of 5 feet.
       
       
       4. The system shall weigh less than 5,000 pounds.
       
       
       
       
   
   
   13. Be able to perform tasks, including but not limited, to cleaning, depositing, and oxidizing on the following substrates:
       
       
       
       1. 3 inch and 150 mm wafers defined by semi-spec lateral dimension.
       
       
       2. Substrates made of Silicon, Gallium-Arsenide, Glass, Fused Silica, Quartz, and Sapphire.
       
       
       3. Substrates with thickness in the range from 0.2 mm to 1 mm.
       
       
       
       
   
   
   14. Be able to accommodate 3 inch and 150 mm wafers without changing any parts within the main chamber.
   
   
   15. Contain a transfer arm sub-system capable of transferring wafers between the load lock and substrate fixture modules.
   
   
   16. Include a first process module that shall be a load lock module. This module must be able to accept 3 inch and 150 mm wafers with SEMI spec lateral dimensions. The load-lock module shall:
       
       
       
       1. Have a door for the operator to insert a wafer or wafer tray.
       
       
       2. Have low and high vacuum gauges.
       
       
       3. Utilize an appropriate turbo/dry pump configuration.
       
       
       4. Have a pumping system capable of pumping out the load lock to a pressure below 3e-6 Torr within a duration of 20 min.
       
       
       5. Have the required plumbing to admit a flow of oxygen gas.
       
       
       6. Have a purpose designed oxygen gas shower diffuser system for uniform oxidation.
       
       
       7. Have two capacitance manometer pressure gauges for the measurement of oxygen pressure. One that shall cover the high range of pressures and one that shall cover the low range of pressures. The specific pressure ranges will be determined during the design phase of the system.
       
       
       8. Have an independent pumping system that does not share components with other modules that is capable of handling both static and dynamic oxidation.
       
       
       9. Be able to perform static oxidation at pressures up to 100 Torr and dynamic oxidation at pressures up to 0.5 Torr.
       
       
       
       
   
   
   
   


2. Include a second module that shall be a main chamber module. The main chamber module shall:
   
   
   
   1. Be constructed of materials and use seals consistent with achieving Ultra High Vacuum (UHV).
   
   
   2. Have at least one opening large enough for all maintenance activities.
   
   
   3. Include a means of accessing the main chamber for maintenance that shall not require any lifting on the part of a human operator.
   
   
   4. Have a main chamber pumping sub-module that shall:
      
      
      
      1. Be independent of load-lock pumping.
      
      
      2. Include a dry rough pump.
      
      
      3. Include all valves.
      
      
      4. Include a cryopump station for ultimate base pressure that shall be physically and electrically compatible with the “CTI Cryo-Torr 8” variety of cryopump.
      
      
      5. Be able to achieve a base pressure in the main chamber of less than 3E-8 Torr within a duration of 48 hours when starting from atmospheric pressure.
      
      
      6. Have all components necessary to automatically regenerate the cryopump station through the control software.
      
      
      7. Be able to throttle the cryo-pump.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   5. Have a viewport with a shutter large enough for an operator to observe processes in the main chamber.
   
   
   6. Include two sets of system liners.
   
   
   7. Include all vacuum gauging to monitor the whole range of pressure, including two capacitance manometers. One that shall cover the high range of pressures and one that shall cover the low range of pressures. The specific pressure ranges will be determined during the design phase of the system.
   
   
   8. Have an ellipsometry sub-module that shall:
      
      
      
      1. Be able to perform ellipsometry on films on the wafer in the main chamber.
      
      
      2. Include both visible and infrared wavelengths.
      
      
      3. Be able to log measurements as part of an automatic recipe.
         
         
      
      
      
      
   
   
   9. Have a residual gas analyzer sub-module that shall:
      
      
      
      1. Be able to monitor residual gasses in the main chamber.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   10. Be able to interface with a load lock module.
   
   
   11. Be able to interface with a deposition module.
   
   
   12. Be able to interface with a substrate fixture module.
   
   
   
   

1. Include a third module that shall be a deposition module. The deposition chamber module shall:
   
   
   
   1. Be able to interface with the main chamber module.
   
   
   2. Be able to be controlled and monitored through the control software.
   
   
   3. Have five 4-inch dc sputter gun sources installed that include shutters.
   
   
   4. Have one ion source installed that is a “KRI eH400” or equivalent.
   
   
   5. Include all plumbing, vacuum gauges, and gas control for delivering up to three separate gas flows to the sources and chamber.
   
   
   6. Include two DC power supplies with minimum 1200 W power output.
   
   
   7. Include a power supply multiplexing switch that may multiplex the two power supplies to any of the sputter gun sources.
   
   
   
   

1. Include a fourth module that shall be a substrate fixture module. The substrate fixture module shall:
   
   
   
   1. Be able to interface with the load-lock module through the transfer arm sub-system.
   
   
   2. Be able to be controlled and monitored by the control software.
   
   
   3. Be able to rotate the wafer at variable speeds with a maximum speed that exceeds 14 rpm.
   
   
   4. Be able to accommodate 3in and 150 mm SEMI-spec wafers with an exclusion area of 5mm or less.
   
   
   5. Have backside water cooling.
   
   
   6. Have advanced backside gas-gap cooling.
   
   
   7. Provide isolation and shielding to permit substrate bias up to 300 W RF.
   
   
   8. Include a substrate shutter.
   
   
   9. Include a RF power supply for substrate bias that can supply a minimum of 300 W with an automatic matching network.
   
   
   
   

1. Include spare items that shall:
   
   
   
   1. Include general spares of common system parts, including chamber and viewport seals, spare gaskets, shutters, and shields.
   
   
   2. Include two spare 4-inch sputter gun sources.
   
   
   3. Include one spare dry rough pump.
   
   
   4. Include one spare cryo-pump and cryo-compressor.
   
   
   
   

1. Meet the following performance characteristics:
   
   
   
   1. Load-Lock pump down shall:
      
      
      
      1. Require a duration less than 20 min to reach a pressure below 3e-6 Torr.
      
      
      2. When starting at atmospheric pressure.
      
      
      3. Not require operator intervention to complete.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   2. Main chamber pump down shall:
      
      
      
      1. Require a duration of less than 48 hours to reach a pressure below 3E-8 Torr.
      
      
      2. When starting at atmospheric pressure.
      
      
      3. Not require operator intervention to complete.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   3. Deposited film uniformity shall:
      
      
      
      1. Be less than plus/minus 4.5 percent.
      
      
      2. Across a 150 mm wafer
      
      
      3. Providing for a 5 mm exclusion area
      
      
      4. Be measured with 4-wire resistance, profilometry, or ellipsometry.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   4. Ion source wafer clean uniformity shall:
      
      
      
      1. Be less than plus/minus 5.0 percent.
      
      
      2. Across a 150 mm wafer
      
      
      3. Providing for a 5 mm exclusion area
      
      
      4. Be measured with before and after measurements of an oxidized wafer.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   5. Rf sputter clean wafer uniformity shall:
      
      
      
      1. Be less than plus/minus 5.0 percent.
      
      
      2. Across a 150 mm wafer
      
      
      3. Providing for a 5 mm exclusion area
      
      
      4. Be measured with before and after measurements of an oxidized silicon wafer.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   
   

NIST conducted market research from 2020 to 2023 by attending conferences, speaking with colleagues, performing internet searches, and speaking with vendors to determine what sources could meet NIST’s minimum requirements. The results of that market research revealed that only Kurt J Lesker Company (UEI: E2JQUCNKLE93) appears to be capable of meeting NIST’s requirements.

The Boulder Microfabrication Facility (BMF) has a system for the deposition of niobium tri-layer junctions that was first commissioned in 2005 and later upgraded in 2017. The BMF requires a new system to deposit niobium tri-layer junction layers to provide redundancy for this critical process and expand on the capabilities of that older system. Expanded capabilities include automatic transfer arm, in-chamber metrology, advanced wafer cooling, additional pre-clean options, and an extended oxidation pressure range. It is important that the new BMF Tri-Layer Junction System be able to provide new capability while still being able to closely replicate the processes from the existing system. Obtaining the new system will solve a critical NIST vulnerability, namely exclusive dependence on the existing nearly 20-year-old machine. This dependence creates schedule and performance risks for numerous internal NIST projects, for external collaborators on five continents, and for space programs with budgets more than $2 billion. To ensure that we can transfer the working processes to the new system, we need the new system configuration to match that of the existing system to the maximum extent possible. The existing system now includes an upgrade that was acquired in 2017. As part of that upgrade, a new oxygen gas shower diffuser was provided that greatly improved the oxidation uniformity. To achieve full wafer yields, the new system will require a similar or identical shower diffuser. Lastly, we require a wafer cooling mechanism that can provide better wafer cooling while not impacting the existing processes.

The most effective means to have the new system configuration to match that of the existing system to the maximum extent possible is to utilize the original equipment manufacturer of the existing system. While the original equipment manufacturers equipment has evolved, they do offer a system which has the same general geometry and configuration (Kurt J. Lesker LAB Line SPUTTER 12). They are also able to offer the same proprietary oxygen gas shower diffuser we utilize in the existing system. Additionally, they can offer an advanced gas-gap wafer cooling that will be compatible with the existing processes. Since the equipment technology is based on gas-gap, there is no residue or danger of wafer breakage as can be experienced with wafer cooling based on adhesives. Adhesive based solutions are not acceptable for our processes. This advanced wafer cooling technology is proprietary to only Kurt J Lesker Company..

If the Government does not obtain the proprietary gas-gap wafer cooling technology only available from Kurt J. Lesker Company, there could be a range of undesirable outcomes. Kurt J. Lesker Company will not sell the oxygen gas shower diffuser module to a third party.

The only way to qualify the oxidation uniformity of any other commercial equipment manufacturer is to do a near full device fabrication process. This can only be done in the BMF, so it is not possible for a vendor to qualify this in advance of delivery. Therefore, the only way to ensure that we will get acceptable results is to utilize the original equipment manufacturer. Lastly, if the Government did not purchase from the original equipment manufacturer, advanced wafer cooling would not be available since this vendor is the sole provider of the gas-gap technology and adhesive based solutions are not acceptable for our processes.

HOW TO RESPOND TO THIS NOTICE

In responding to this notice, please DO NOT PROVIDE PROPRIETARY INFORMATION. Please include only the following information, readable in either Microsoft Word 365, Microsoft Excel 365, or .pdf format, in the response. Submit the response by email to the Primary Point of Contact and, if specified, to the Secondary Point of Contact listed at the bottom of this notice as soon as possible, and preferably before the closing date and time of this notice.

• Provide the complete name of your company, address, name of contact for follow-up questions, their email, their phone number and, if your company has an active registration in https://sam.gov, your company’s Unique Entity ID (UEI).


• Details about what your company is capable of providing that meets or exceeds NIST’s minimum requirements.


• Whether your company is an authorized reseller of the product or service being cited and evidence of such authorization.


• Identify any aspects of the description of the requirements in the BACKGROUND section above that could be viewed as unduly restrictive or create unnecessary barriers that adversely affect your firm’s ability to fully participate in a procurement for such services and explain why. Please offer suggestions for how the requirements could be organized or structured to encourage the participation of small businesses.


• For the NAICS code


• Indicate whether your company is (a) a small business or (b) other than small business. See the Table of Small Business Size Standards and the associated .pdf download file for small business size standards and additional information.


• If you believe the NAICS code listed in this notice is not the best NAICS code for the type of product addressed in this notice, identify an alternative NAICS code that you believe would be more appropriate for the planned procurement.

• If your firm has existing Federal Supply Schedule contract(s) or other contracts for products or services against which the Department may be able to place orders, identify the contract number(s) and other relevant information.

• Describe your firm’s experience (as a prime, subcontractor, or consultant) providing the products or services described in Background section.


• Provide any other information that you believe would be valuable for the Government to know as part of its market research for this requirement.


• Please let us know if you would like to engage to get a better understanding of the requirement or need additional information about the Government’s requirement for the products or services described in the Background section.

QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS NOTICE

Questions regarding this notice may be submitted via email to the Primary Point of Contact and the Secondary Point of Contact listed in this notice. Questions should be submitted so that they are received by 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on March 18, 2024. Questions will be anonymized and answered via sources sought notice amendment following the question submission deadline.

IMPORTANT NOTES

The information received in response to this notice will be reviewed and considered so that the NIST may appropriately solicit for its requirements in the near future.

This notice should not be construed as a commitment by the NIST to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract.

This notice is not a request for a quotation. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotations.

No award will be made as a result of this notice.

NIST is not responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice.

NIST reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and appropriate.

Thank you for taking the time to submit a response to this request!

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