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Nano-Fabrication Facility
User Facility Operating Rules, Fees, & Equipment
This document provides operating rules and the first year budget as set by the CREOL clean room committee. The committee includes Jim Pearson faculty members Glenn Boreman, Dennis Deppe (chair), Patrick LiKamWa, and Winston Schoenfeld. The clean room equipment includes the electron-beam lithography system (Leica) and device fabrication equipment housed in CREOL room 180.
Operating rules:
The clean room committee sets policies and operations for the clean room with decisions made by a majority vote of the committee. This includes user fees, budget, budget expenditures, equipment, personnel, and any related issues.
A CREOL financial account will be established for the purpose of collecting funds and user fees and making expenditures associated with operation of the clean room. It is anticipated that the existing account established for e-beam operation will be augmented to include a second subaccount established for operation of the processing and fabrication equipment, including user fees and tool fees and additional funds. Expenditures will routinely be made from these accounts to cover operating costs. Periodic updates of account balances and expenditures will be provided to the committee members.
Fees:
The clean room budget has been separated into two sub-accounts that include fees and expected additional funds to be made available from university support for operation of the electron beam lithography tool (Leica) including its operator, and a second sub-account to cover the operating costs of the room usage and additional processing tools within the clean room facility. The separation of the budget is motivated by the recognition that the electron beam lithography represents a stand-alone process of interest to researchers and may be accessed with a well-defined cost for its operation and maintenance. A list of existing clean room equipment is shown at the end of this document.
Electron beam lithography system:
Electron beam lithography usage account: The existing CREOL account previously established for electron beam usage will be maintained for collecting funds and fees and to cover expenditures for the electron beam tool operation and usage. Fees are shown below.
Clean room device fabrication tools usage:
Clean room tools usage account: The existing CREOL account previously established for electron beam usage will be augmented with a second auxiliary account for collecting funds and fees and to cover expenditures for the clean room tool usage exclusive of the electron beam lithography tool. Fees are shown below.
Clean room tool fees description: Operation of the remaining clean room tools requires entrance into the clean room facility and requires funding support associated with training, facility and tool maintenance and repairs, general purpose chemicals, cleaning, etching, gowns, gloves, and a range of incidental costs associated with tool and room usage. Three tools, in addition to the e-beam system, that include the Temescal metal deposition, Unaxis III-V reactive ion etcher, and STS plasma CVD dielectric deposition systems, also have consumable costs and tool usage fees. To maintain a reasonable accounting effort while adequately covering the operating costs of the room and additional tools, the clean room committee has adopted a fee basis that includes an initial fee of ~$250 to cover the cost of three permanent clean room gowns for each approved clean room user, and a general usage fee for entrance into the room to cover the costs of equipment usage and general purpose chemicals. Once gowns are purchased, clean room user fees (except for users of only the electron-beam lithography exclusively) are charged for each user at the following rates:
In addition, separate tool usage fees for the Temescal metallization, Unaxis III-V reactive ion etcher, STS plasma CVD dielectric deposition system, and Leica e-beam lithography system are charged on a running usage fee basis designed to cover consumables and maintenance. These rates for academia are:
NOTE: if only the e-beam system is used, and none of the other cleanroom equipment or materials are used, the daily/monthly user fees do not apply.
Fees for each clean room user are to be collected before the user is allowed access to the clean room by providing a suitable account to be charged for usage, with fees transferred into the clean room usage account described above. Two forms need to be obtained from and turned into James Ross: Authorization for User; and Nano-Fabrication Cleanroom Account (this last one must be submitted by the PI/account holder).
Equipment placed in the clean room by individual researchers: In some cases individual faculty members may wish to place equipment they have purchased from other sources for general clean room usage. In the case the equipment is accepted by the committee and placed in the clean room for general purpose use, that faculty member providing the equipment will be credited a portion of the actual equipment cost in user fees in exchange for use of the equipment by clean room users. Decisions made to accept equipment into the clean room are made by majority vote of the clean room committee.
Clean room user qualification and equipment training: Clean room users will undergo a safety course before admission to the clean room, and must be trained and demonstrate proficiency on the equipment they will use. Oversight on training and equipment operation will be conducted by clean room technical support personnel and by super-users on each tool, with these super-users expected to come from research groups.
Super-users: Super-users are selected from research scientists and senior graduate researchers and are responsible for user training, user qualification, maintaining and posting an accurate list of qualified users on or near the equipment, and working with the facility technical support staff on oversight of routine maintenance.
Available Equipment List:
As of March 16, 2007
