From matthieu.nannini at mcgill.ca Fri Oct 14 09:43:24 2011 From: matthieu.nannini at mcgill.ca (Matthieu Nannini, Dr.) Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:43:24 +0000 Subject: [labnetwork] Sputtering of As2Se3 and RIE Message-ID: Dear lab network, I received a request for sputtering and RIE of chalcogenide glass out of a As2Se3 target. At first sight the As contamination worries me a lot. First it will contaminate the chamber then we will need to clean that taking all necessary precautions as per As. Anyone as experience regarding those kind of processes ? ----------------------------------- Matthieu Nannini McGill Nanotools Microfab Manager t: 514 398 3310 c: 514 758 3311 f: 514 398 8434 http://miam2.physics.mcgill.ca/ ------------------------------------ From bradshaw1234 at gmail.com Fri Oct 14 21:31:12 2011 From: bradshaw1234 at gmail.com (Keith Bradshaw) Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:31:12 -0500 Subject: [labnetwork] chiller water Message-ID: We have used distilled water in our chillers recirculating tanks. Recently we have suddenly seen the inline filters clogged with corrosion. We have seen more problems in the last 5 months than we had in the previous 6 years. Any advice on this? Should we be using an additive? cordially, Keith Bradshaw Garland, Texas -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From shott at stanford.edu Sat Oct 15 11:57:00 2011 From: shott at stanford.edu (John Shott) Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2011 08:57:00 -0700 Subject: [labnetwork] chiller water In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4E99AD4C.2040808@stanford.edu> Keith: While I'm confident that others will contribute some important insights and recommendations to this discussion, let me take an initial stab at discussing some of the issues and approaches that we have tried. Note: I don't consider myself an expert in this area, but have certainly had to deal with a lot of problems in these areas over the years .... both in tools with local chillers and heat exchangers and in tools connected to the building-wide process cooling water system. We've likely had more problems over the years with the building-wide system and have tended to go to local chillers and/or heat exchangers when we either encounter a corrosion problem or have a resistivity requirement that cannot be met by the building-wide system. That said, however, we also have periodically seen problems on our tools with local chillers and/or heat exchangers. Note: Just for reference, our building wide system is treated with Nalco TRAC107 at a 2000 ppm concentration, a pH of 7.5 to 8.0 but it ends up with a pretty low resistivity of about only 2000 ohm-cm (500 microSiemens/cm) by a closed-loop control system. We recently had a problem due to a failed pH probe that resulted in water with a pH of 6-6.5 .... which begins to be bad news for aluminum and mild steel. So, even a "professionally managed", closed-loop control system can have problems and is an ongoing struggle. Back to your local chiller .... 1. I think that it's always good to understand the metals in the system .... including parts of the chiller as well as the materials in your machine through which the water flows .... to understand how much of a galvanic reaction problem you are likely to have. While we can't always control these things, systems that have mixtures of aluminum, yellow metals, and mild steel tend to be more problematic. A lot of tool manufacturers seem to include quite a range of metals in contact with the water. 2. Can you measure the pH of the water in your recirculating tank? If it has gradually drifted away from 7-ish .... particularly if it gets below 6.5 or so ... that may help to explain more recent problems. If pH is either or low or high I'd try to fully exchange the distilled water. 3. Do you have a resistivity requirement .... for example, if this chiller is cooling RF supplies, then you need pretty high resistivity water. What are some other options? 1. Analyzing the chemical content of the stuff that you are capturing in your filters is often useful to try to determine what is the primary corrosion material .... or whether you may be seeing organic material due to algae growth. I believe that the little systems with open tanks are more prone to algae problems than truly closed loop systems because of ongoing oxygen entrapment in the water. 2. Adding a little deionizing cartrigde, resistivity monitor, and solenoid so that water can periodically be passed through the deionizing cartridge. I believe that a lot of people will tell you that something in the range of 0.5 - 1.0 Mohm-cm is about optimum. High enough resistivity to reduce galvanic corrosion, but not so high that the DI water corrodes everything in sight. Note: if you go this route, you generally have a second solenoid controlled loop with the deionizing cartridge in it in parallel with the main flow loop. That is because you can't typically get 2-3 GPM through a deionizing cartridge so you have a bypass flow channel that routes a little bit of the flow through the deionizer when you need to increase the resistivity. Plus, you are only shooting for 0.5 - 1.0 MOhm-cm and don't want to be routing too much of the flow through a deionizing cartridge. I haven't priced this in a while, but I think that you can get a cartridge housing, a resistivity controller, and a resistivity probe for on the order of $1k. 3. There are additives that claim to be able to be added to these recirculators to inhibit corrosion with minimum monitoring or precise control. For example, there is some stuff called Optishield (and Optishield II and Optishield Plus ....) that you mix in at about a 10% concentration with your distilled water. That is supposed to be good for a year and then you empty the lines and refill with a fresh mix. I have no personal experience with this stuff .... but maybe someone else has and cares to comment. 4. We have used 50/50 mixes of DI water an ethylene glycol in a number of tools .... particularly if they are going to be cooling to temperatures near freezing. This mix, by itself, doesn't really include much in the way of corrosion protection .... and, as I understand it, if it is run to too long, can break down into a variety of acids that will once again create problems. Note: when we've had systems that have gotten significant build up, we have used a variety of radiator flush type products ... with a fair amount of trepidation .... to try to clear some of the "stuff" out of a system. I'm not particularly proud to admit this ... but desperate times call for desperate measures and a machine with a plugged (or nearly so) cooling channel is a desperate situation if you can't easily disassemble and/or replace cooling channels. I fear that my conclusion is that we've tried a lot of things over the years and still don't have a particularly good approach that has resolved these issues on a permanent basis. Maybe some or our more enlightened colleagues will provide a more comprehensive approach. Good luck, John On 10/14/2011 6:31 PM, Keith Bradshaw wrote: > We have used distilled water in our chillers recirculating tanks. > Recently we have suddenly seen the inline filters clogged with > corrosion. We have seen more problems in the last 5 months than we > had in the previous 6 years. > > Any advice on this? > Should we be using an additive? > > > cordially, > > Keith Bradshaw > Garland, Texas -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dgrimard at umich.edu Sat Oct 15 13:17:35 2011 From: dgrimard at umich.edu (Grimard, Dennis) Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:17:35 +0000 Subject: [labnetwork] chiller water In-Reply-To: <4E99AD4C.2040808@stanford.edu> References: <4E99AD4C.2040808@stanford.edu> Message-ID: John: I don't think there is much more to be said on this subject ... well done ... Dennis S. Grimard, Ph.D LNF Managing Director 1246D EECS Building University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2122 (734) 936-1413 Office (734) 368-7172 Cell (734) 647-1781 Fax http://www.lnf.umich.edu From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of John Shott Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2011 11:57 AM To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu Cc: jgood at utdallas.edu; bradshaw1234 at gmail.com Subject: Re: [labnetwork] chiller water Keith: While I'm confident that others will contribute some important insights and recommendations to this discussion, let me take an initial stab at discussing some of the issues and approaches that we have tried. Note: I don't consider myself an expert in this area, but have certainly had to deal with a lot of problems in these areas over the years .... both in tools with local chillers and heat exchangers and in tools connected to the building-wide process cooling water system. We've likely had more problems over the years with the building-wide system and have tended to go to local chillers and/or heat exchangers when we either encounter a corrosion problem or have a resistivity requirement that cannot be met by the building-wide system. That said, however, we also have periodically seen problems on our tools with local chillers and/or heat exchangers. Note: Just for reference, our building wide system is treated with Nalco TRAC107 at a 2000 ppm concentration, a pH of 7.5 to 8.0 but it ends up with a pretty low resistivity of about only 2000 ohm-cm (500 microSiemens/cm) by a closed-loop control system. We recently had a problem due to a failed pH probe that resulted in water with a pH of 6-6.5 .... which begins to be bad news for aluminum and mild steel. So, even a "professionally managed", closed-loop control system can have problems and is an ongoing struggle. Back to your local chiller .... 1. I think that it's always good to understand the metals in the system .... including parts of the chiller as well as the materials in your machine through which the water flows .... to understand how much of a galvanic reaction problem you are likely to have. While we can't always control these things, systems that have mixtures of aluminum, yellow metals, and mild steel tend to be more problematic. A lot of tool manufacturers seem to include quite a range of metals in contact with the water. 2. Can you measure the pH of the water in your recirculating tank? If it has gradually drifted away from 7-ish .... particularly if it gets below 6.5 or so ... that may help to explain more recent problems. If pH is either or low or high I'd try to fully exchange the distilled water. 3. Do you have a resistivity requirement .... for example, if this chiller is cooling RF supplies, then you need pretty high resistivity water. What are some other options? 1. Analyzing the chemical content of the stuff that you are capturing in your filters is often useful to try to determine what is the primary corrosion material .... or whether you may be seeing organic material due to algae growth. I believe that the little systems with open tanks are more prone to algae problems than truly closed loop systems because of ongoing oxygen entrapment in the water. 2. Adding a little deionizing cartrigde, resistivity monitor, and solenoid so that water can periodically be passed through the deionizing cartridge. I believe that a lot of people will tell you that something in the range of 0.5 - 1.0 Mohm-cm is about optimum. High enough resistivity to reduce galvanic corrosion, but not so high that the DI water corrodes everything in sight. Note: if you go this route, you generally have a second solenoid controlled loop with the deionizing cartridge in it in parallel with the main flow loop. That is because you can't typically get 2-3 GPM through a deionizing cartridge so you have a bypass flow channel that routes a little bit of the flow through the deionizer when you need to increase the resistivity. Plus, you are only shooting for 0.5 - 1.0 MOhm-cm and don't want to be routing too much of the flow through a deionizing cartridge. I haven't priced this in a while, but I think that you can get a cartridge housing, a resistivity controller, and a resistivity probe for on the order of $1k. 3. There are additives that claim to be able to be added to these recirculators to inhibit corrosion with minimum monitoring or precise control. For example, there is some stuff called Optishield (and Optishield II and Optishield Plus ....) that you mix in at about a 10% concentration with your distilled water. That is supposed to be good for a year and then you empty the lines and refill with a fresh mix. I have no personal experience with this stuff .... but maybe someone else has and cares to comment. 4. We have used 50/50 mixes of DI water an ethylene glycol in a number of tools .... particularly if they are going to be cooling to temperatures near freezing. This mix, by itself, doesn't really include much in the way of corrosion protection .... and, as I understand it, if it is run to too long, can break down into a variety of acids that will once again create problems. Note: when we've had systems that have gotten significant build up, we have used a variety of radiator flush type products ... with a fair amount of trepidation .... to try to clear some of the "stuff" out of a system. I'm not particularly proud to admit this ... but desperate times call for desperate measures and a machine with a plugged (or nearly so) cooling channel is a desperate situation if you can't easily disassemble and/or replace cooling channels. I fear that my conclusion is that we've tried a lot of things over the years and still don't have a particularly good approach that has resolved these issues on a permanent basis. Maybe some or our more enlightened colleagues will provide a more comprehensive approach. Good luck, John On 10/14/2011 6:31 PM, Keith Bradshaw wrote: We have used distilled water in our chillers recirculating tanks. Recently we have suddenly seen the inline filters clogged with corrosion. We have seen more problems in the last 5 months than we had in the previous 6 years. Any advice on this? Should we be using an additive? cordially, Keith Bradshaw Garland, Texas -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bradshaw1234 at gmail.com Sat Oct 15 16:37:11 2011 From: bradshaw1234 at gmail.com (Keith Bradshaw) Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2011 15:37:11 -0500 Subject: [labnetwork] chiller water In-Reply-To: <4E99AD4C.2040808@stanford.edu> References: <4E99AD4C.2040808@stanford.edu> Message-ID: Thanks, John....this information is the best thing the labnetwork does. cordially, Keith On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 10:57 AM, John Shott wrote: > ** > Keith: > > While I'm confident that others will contribute some important insights and > recommendations to this discussion, let me take an initial stab at > discussing some of the issues and approaches that we have tried. Note: I > don't consider myself an expert in this area, but have certainly had to deal > with a lot of problems in these areas over the years .... both in tools with > local chillers and heat exchangers and in tools connected to the > building-wide process cooling water system. > > We've likely had more problems over the years with the building-wide system > and have tended to go to local chillers and/or heat exchangers when we > either encounter a corrosion problem or have a resistivity requirement that > cannot be met by the building-wide system. That said, however, we also have > periodically seen problems on our tools with local chillers and/or heat > exchangers. > > Note: Just for reference, our building wide system is treated with Nalco > TRAC107 at a 2000 ppm concentration, a pH of 7.5 to 8.0 but it ends up with > a pretty low resistivity of about only 2000 ohm-cm (500 microSiemens/cm) by > a closed-loop control system. We recently had a problem due to a failed pH > probe that resulted in water with a pH of 6-6.5 .... which begins to be bad > news for aluminum and mild steel. So, even a "professionally managed", > closed-loop control system can have problems and is an ongoing struggle. > > Back to your local chiller .... > > 1. I think that it's always good to understand the metals in the system > .... including parts of the chiller as well as the materials in your machine > through which the water flows .... to understand how much of a galvanic > reaction problem you are likely to have. While we can't always control > these things, systems that have mixtures of aluminum, yellow metals, and > mild steel tend to be more problematic. A lot of tool manufacturers seem to > include quite a range of metals in contact with the water. > > 2. Can you measure the pH of the water in your recirculating tank? If it > has gradually drifted away from 7-ish .... particularly if it gets below 6.5 > or so ... that may help to explain more recent problems. If pH is either or > low or high I'd try to fully exchange the distilled water. > > 3. Do you have a resistivity requirement .... for example, if this chiller > is cooling RF supplies, then you need pretty high resistivity water. > > What are some other options? > > 1. Analyzing the chemical content of the stuff that you are capturing in > your filters is often useful to try to determine what is the primary > corrosion material .... or whether you may be seeing organic material due to > algae growth. I believe that the little systems with open tanks are more > prone to algae problems than truly closed loop systems because of ongoing > oxygen entrapment in the water. > > 2. Adding a little deionizing cartrigde, resistivity monitor, and solenoid > so that water can periodically be passed through the deionizing cartridge. > I believe that a lot of people will tell you that something in the range of > 0.5 - 1.0 Mohm-cm is about optimum. High enough resistivity to reduce > galvanic corrosion, but not so high that the DI water corrodes everything in > sight. Note: if you go this route, you generally have a second solenoid > controlled loop with the deionizing cartridge in it in parallel with the > main flow loop. That is because you can't typically get 2-3 GPM through a > deionizing cartridge so you have a bypass flow channel that routes a little > bit of the flow through the deionizer when you need to increase the > resistivity. Plus, you are only shooting for 0.5 - 1.0 MOhm-cm and don't > want to be routing too much of the flow through a deionizing cartridge. I > haven't priced this in a while, but I think that you can get a cartridge > housing, a resistivity controller, and a resistivity probe for on the order > of $1k. > > 3. There are additives that claim to be able to be added to these > recirculators to inhibit corrosion with minimum monitoring or precise > control. For example, there is some stuff called Optishield (and Optishield > II and Optishield Plus ....) that you mix in at about a 10% concentration > with your distilled water. That is supposed to be good for a year and then > you empty the lines and refill with a fresh mix. I have no personal > experience with this stuff .... but maybe someone else has and cares to > comment. > > 4. We have used 50/50 mixes of DI water an ethylene glycol in a number of > tools .... particularly if they are going to be cooling to temperatures near > freezing. This mix, by itself, doesn't really include much in the way of > corrosion protection .... and, as I understand it, if it is run to too long, > can break down into a variety of acids that will once again create problems. > > Note: when we've had systems that have gotten significant build up, we have > used a variety of radiator flush type products ... with a fair amount of > trepidation .... to try to clear some of the "stuff" out of a system. I'm > not particularly proud to admit this ... but desperate times call for > desperate measures and a machine with a plugged (or nearly so) cooling > channel is a desperate situation if you can't easily disassemble and/or > replace cooling channels. > > I fear that my conclusion is that we've tried a lot of things over the > years and still don't have a particularly good approach that has resolved > these issues on a permanent basis. Maybe some or our more enlightened > colleagues will provide a more comprehensive approach. > > Good luck, > > John > > > > On 10/14/2011 6:31 PM, Keith Bradshaw wrote: > > We have used distilled water in our chillers recirculating tanks. > Recently we have suddenly seen the inline filters clogged with corrosion. > We have seen more problems in the last 5 months than we had in the previous > 6 years. > > Any advice on this? > Should we be using an additive? > > > cordially, > > Keith Bradshaw > Garland, Texas > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From info at fabsurplus.com Sun Oct 16 06:36:19 2011 From: info at fabsurplus.com (Stephen CS Howe) Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 12:36:19 +0200 Subject: [labnetwork] chiller water In-Reply-To: <4E99AD4C.2040808@stanford.edu> References: <4E99AD4C.2040808@stanford.edu> Message-ID: <1318761379.2178.6.camel@samsung.tower> Dear John, In my experience, the color of the tubes can make quite a difference to the presence of alghe growths in the lines and filters. Rather than use an anti-alghe treatment, if you use black or other dark colored non-transparent tubes, it eliminates a lot of problems. Of course, that won't help you with corrosion though. Yours sincerely, Stephen Howe Company Owner SDI Fabsurplus Group +1 830 388 1071 (Mobile) +39 335 710 7756 (Italy Mobile) Skype: Stephencshowe WWW.FABSURPLUS.COM Contact us now to buy and sell used equipment and enjoy the benefits of cost-saving. On Sat, 2011-10-15 at 08:57 -0700, John Shott wrote: > Keith: > > While I'm confident that others will contribute some important > insights and recommendations to this discussion, let me take an > initial stab at discussing some of the issues and approaches that we > have tried. Note: I don't consider myself an expert in this area, but > have certainly had to deal with a lot of problems in these areas over > the years .... both in tools with local chillers and heat exchangers > and in tools connected to the building-wide process cooling water > system. > > We've likely had more problems over the years with the building-wide > system and have tended to go to local chillers and/or heat exchangers > when we either encounter a corrosion problem or have a resistivity > requirement that cannot be met by the building-wide system. That > said, however, we also have periodically seen problems on our tools > with local chillers and/or heat exchangers. > > Note: Just for reference, our building wide system is treated with > Nalco TRAC107 at a 2000 ppm concentration, a pH of 7.5 to 8.0 but it > ends up with a pretty low resistivity of about only 2000 ohm-cm (500 > microSiemens/cm) by a closed-loop control system. We recently had a > problem due to a failed pH probe that resulted in water with a pH of > 6-6.5 .... which begins to be bad news for aluminum and mild steel. > So, even a "professionally managed", closed-loop control system can > have problems and is an ongoing struggle. > > Back to your local chiller .... > > 1. I think that it's always good to understand the metals in the > system .... including parts of the chiller as well as the materials in > your machine through which the water flows .... to understand how much > of a galvanic reaction problem you are likely to have. While we can't > always control these things, systems that have mixtures of aluminum, > yellow metals, and mild steel tend to be more problematic. A lot of > tool manufacturers seem to include quite a range of metals in contact > with the water. > > 2. Can you measure the pH of the water in your recirculating tank? If > it has gradually drifted away from 7-ish .... particularly if it gets > below 6.5 or so ... that may help to explain more recent problems. If > pH is either or low or high I'd try to fully exchange the distilled > water. > > 3. Do you have a resistivity requirement .... for example, if this > chiller is cooling RF supplies, then you need pretty high resistivity > water. > > What are some other options? > > 1. Analyzing the chemical content of the stuff that you are capturing > in your filters is often useful to try to determine what is the > primary corrosion material .... or whether you may be seeing organic > material due to algae growth. I believe that the little systems with > open tanks are more prone to algae problems than truly closed loop > systems because of ongoing oxygen entrapment in the water. > > 2. Adding a little deionizing cartrigde, resistivity monitor, and > solenoid so that water can periodically be passed through the > deionizing cartridge. I believe that a lot of people will tell you > that something in the range of 0.5 - 1.0 Mohm-cm is about optimum. > High enough resistivity to reduce galvanic corrosion, but not so high > that the DI water corrodes everything in sight. Note: if you go this > route, you generally have a second solenoid controlled loop with the > deionizing cartridge in it in parallel with the main flow loop. That > is because you can't typically get 2-3 GPM through a deionizing > cartridge so you have a bypass flow channel that routes a little bit > of the flow through the deionizer when you need to increase the > resistivity. Plus, you are only shooting for 0.5 - 1.0 MOhm-cm and > don't want to be routing too much of the flow through a deionizing > cartridge. I haven't priced this in a while, but I think that you can > get a cartridge housing, a resistivity controller, and a resistivity > probe for on the order of $1k. > > 3. There are additives that claim to be able to be added to these > recirculators to inhibit corrosion with minimum monitoring or precise > control. For example, there is some stuff called Optishield (and > Optishield II and Optishield Plus ....) that you mix in at about a 10% > concentration with your distilled water. That is supposed to be good > for a year and then you empty the lines and refill with a fresh mix. > I have no personal experience with this stuff .... but maybe someone > else has and cares to comment. > > 4. We have used 50/50 mixes of DI water an ethylene glycol in a number > of tools .... particularly if they are going to be cooling to > temperatures near freezing. This mix, by itself, doesn't really > include much in the way of corrosion protection .... and, as I > understand it, if it is run to too long, can break down into a variety > of acids that will once again create problems. > > Note: when we've had systems that have gotten significant build up, we > have used a variety of radiator flush type products ... with a fair > amount of trepidation .... to try to clear some of the "stuff" out of > a system. I'm not particularly proud to admit this ... but desperate > times call for desperate measures and a machine with a plugged (or > nearly so) cooling channel is a desperate situation if you can't > easily disassemble and/or replace cooling channels. > > I fear that my conclusion is that we've tried a lot of things over the > years and still don't have a particularly good approach that has > resolved these issues on a permanent basis. Maybe some or our more > enlightened colleagues will provide a more comprehensive approach. > > Good luck, > > John > > > On 10/14/2011 6:31 PM, Keith Bradshaw wrote: > > We have used distilled water in our chillers recirculating tanks. > > Recently we have suddenly seen the inline filters clogged with > > corrosion. We have seen more problems in the last 5 months than we > > had in the previous 6 years. > > > > Any advice on this? > > Should we be using an additive? > > > > > > cordially, > > > > Keith Bradshaw > > Garland, Texas > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > labnetwork mailing list > labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu > https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork From shott at stanford.edu Sun Oct 16 11:03:33 2011 From: shott at stanford.edu (John Shott) Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 08:03:33 -0700 Subject: [labnetwork] chiller water In-Reply-To: <1318761379.2178.6.camel@samsung.tower> References: <4E99AD4C.2040808@stanford.edu> <1318761379.2178.6.camel@samsung.tower> Message-ID: <4E9AF245.6050604@stanford.edu> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From info at fabsurplus.com Mon Oct 17 05:14:27 2011 From: info at fabsurplus.com (Stephen CS Howe) Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:14:27 +0200 Subject: [labnetwork] chiller water In-Reply-To: <4E9AF245.6050604@stanford.edu> References: <4E99AD4C.2040808@stanford.edu> <1318761379.2178.6.camel@samsung.tower> <4E9AF245.6050604@stanford.edu> Message-ID: <1318842867.2370.38.camel@samsung.tower> Dear John, I have been involved in installing cooling water systems to mass spectrometers when I was an install and field-support engineer. The cooling water was needed to cool diffusion pumps, power supplies and some magnetic coils that carried high currents, so the high temperature was between 30-100 celcius, which I guess was creating a good environment for alghe. I had the opportunity to see a lot of different installs, and we often got a buildup of organic gunge that blocked cartridge filters and small-diameter (1/4 inch ID ) cooling pipes in the worst cases. The effect of transparent pipes was really very noticeable so I strongly recommend black pipes or pipe lagging, even though that means you can't physically see the water flow. The only alternative is a chemical based anti-alghe treatment, but you have to be very careful with the pH which can have a bad effect at temperature on the insides of copper pipes, pumps etc. if you get it wrong.... Yours sincerely, Stephen Howe Company Owner SDI Fabsurplus Group +1 830 388 1071 (Mobile) +39 335 710 7756 (Italy Mobile) Skype: Stephencshowe WWW.FABSURPLUS.COM Contact us now to buy and sell used equipment and enjoy the benefits of cost-saving. On Sun, 2011-10-16 at 08:03 -0700, John Shott wrote: > Stephen: > > Good point ... in the past we've often used translucent Polyflo tubing > to hook up tools because it's cheap and almost universally available. > I agree that that creates an additional likelihood of creating algae. > Over the long haul, it's also almost guaranteed to get brittle and > break at some point as well. I think that we now use Parker PushLok > hose by default with different colors for supply and return ... but > there are lots of opaque and better quality hose choices than > translucent Polyflo. > > Additionally, even though it adds a bit of clear material, we've > learned the hard way that having a readily visible variable-area flow > meter provides and easy way to monitor gradual flow degradation. The > initial cost of these flow meters ... and they aren't that > expensive ... pays for itself the first time you catch a reduced flow > condition in the early phases rather than waiting for a serious > cooling flow problem. > > Thanks, > > John > > > Stephen CS Howe wrote: > > Dear John, > > > > In my experience, the color of the tubes can make quite a difference to > > the presence of alghe growths in the lines and filters. > > Rather than use an anti-alghe treatment, if you use black or other dark > > colored non-transparent tubes, it eliminates a lot of problems. > > > > Of course, that won't help you with corrosion though. > > > > Yours sincerely, > > > > Stephen Howe > > Company Owner > > SDI Fabsurplus Group > > > > +1 830 388 1071 (Mobile) > > +39 335 710 7756 (Italy Mobile) > > Skype: Stephencshowe > > > > WWW.FABSURPLUS.COM > > > > Contact us now to buy and sell used equipment > > and enjoy the benefits of cost-saving. > > > > > > On Sat, 2011-10-15 at 08:57 -0700, John Shott wrote: > > > > > Keith: > > > > > > While I'm confident that others will contribute some important > > > insights and recommendations to this discussion, let me take an > > > initial stab at discussing some of the issues and approaches that we > > > have tried. Note: I don't consider myself an expert in this area, but > > > have certainly had to deal with a lot of problems in these areas over > > > the years .... both in tools with local chillers and heat exchangers > > > and in tools connected to the building-wide process cooling water > > > system. > > > > > > We've likely had more problems over the years with the building-wide > > > system and have tended to go to local chillers and/or heat exchangers > > > when we either encounter a corrosion problem or have a resistivity > > > requirement that cannot be met by the building-wide system. That > > > said, however, we also have periodically seen problems on our tools > > > with local chillers and/or heat exchangers. > > > > > > Note: Just for reference, our building wide system is treated with > > > Nalco TRAC107 at a 2000 ppm concentration, a pH of 7.5 to 8.0 but it > > > ends up with a pretty low resistivity of about only 2000 ohm-cm (500 > > > microSiemens/cm) by a closed-loop control system. We recently had a > > > problem due to a failed pH probe that resulted in water with a pH of > > > 6-6.5 .... which begins to be bad news for aluminum and mild steel. > > > So, even a "professionally managed", closed-loop control system can > > > have problems and is an ongoing struggle. > > > > > > Back to your local chiller .... > > > > > > 1. I think that it's always good to understand the metals in the > > > system .... including parts of the chiller as well as the materials in > > > your machine through which the water flows .... to understand how much > > > of a galvanic reaction problem you are likely to have. While we can't > > > always control these things, systems that have mixtures of aluminum, > > > yellow metals, and mild steel tend to be more problematic. A lot of > > > tool manufacturers seem to include quite a range of metals in contact > > > with the water. > > > > > > 2. Can you measure the pH of the water in your recirculating tank? If > > > it has gradually drifted away from 7-ish .... particularly if it gets > > > below 6.5 or so ... that may help to explain more recent problems. If > > > pH is either or low or high I'd try to fully exchange the distilled > > > water. > > > > > > 3. Do you have a resistivity requirement .... for example, if this > > > chiller is cooling RF supplies, then you need pretty high resistivity > > > water. > > > > > > What are some other options? > > > > > > 1. Analyzing the chemical content of the stuff that you are capturing > > > in your filters is often useful to try to determine what is the > > > primary corrosion material .... or whether you may be seeing organic > > > material due to algae growth. I believe that the little systems with > > > open tanks are more prone to algae problems than truly closed loop > > > systems because of ongoing oxygen entrapment in the water. > > > > > > 2. Adding a little deionizing cartrigde, resistivity monitor, and > > > solenoid so that water can periodically be passed through the > > > deionizing cartridge. I believe that a lot of people will tell you > > > that something in the range of 0.5 - 1.0 Mohm-cm is about optimum. > > > High enough resistivity to reduce galvanic corrosion, but not so high > > > that the DI water corrodes everything in sight. Note: if you go this > > > route, you generally have a second solenoid controlled loop with the > > > deionizing cartridge in it in parallel with the main flow loop. That > > > is because you can't typically get 2-3 GPM through a deionizing > > > cartridge so you have a bypass flow channel that routes a little bit > > > of the flow through the deionizer when you need to increase the > > > resistivity. Plus, you are only shooting for 0.5 - 1.0 MOhm-cm and > > > don't want to be routing too much of the flow through a deionizing > > > cartridge. I haven't priced this in a while, but I think that you can > > > get a cartridge housing, a resistivity controller, and a resistivity > > > probe for on the order of $1k. > > > > > > 3. There are additives that claim to be able to be added to these > > > recirculators to inhibit corrosion with minimum monitoring or precise > > > control. For example, there is some stuff called Optishield (and > > > Optishield II and Optishield Plus ....) that you mix in at about a 10% > > > concentration with your distilled water. That is supposed to be good > > > for a year and then you empty the lines and refill with a fresh mix. > > > I have no personal experience with this stuff .... but maybe someone > > > else has and cares to comment. > > > > > > 4. We have used 50/50 mixes of DI water an ethylene glycol in a number > > > of tools .... particularly if they are going to be cooling to > > > temperatures near freezing. This mix, by itself, doesn't really > > > include much in the way of corrosion protection .... and, as I > > > understand it, if it is run to too long, can break down into a variety > > > of acids that will once again create problems. > > > > > > Note: when we've had systems that have gotten significant build up, we > > > have used a variety of radiator flush type products ... with a fair > > > amount of trepidation .... to try to clear some of the "stuff" out of > > > a system. I'm not particularly proud to admit this ... but desperate > > > times call for desperate measures and a machine with a plugged (or > > > nearly so) cooling channel is a desperate situation if you can't > > > easily disassemble and/or replace cooling channels. > > > > > > I fear that my conclusion is that we've tried a lot of things over the > > > years and still don't have a particularly good approach that has > > > resolved these issues on a permanent basis. Maybe some or our more > > > enlightened colleagues will provide a more comprehensive approach. > > > > > > Good luck, > > > > > > John > > > > > > > > > On 10/14/2011 6:31 PM, Keith Bradshaw wrote: > > > > > > > We have used distilled water in our chillers recirculating tanks. > > > > Recently we have suddenly seen the inline filters clogged with > > > > corrosion. We have seen more problems in the last 5 months than we > > > > had in the previous 6 years. > > > > > > > > Any advice on this? > > > > Should we be using an additive? > > > > > > > > > > > > cordially, > > > > > > > > Keith Bradshaw > > > > Garland, Texas > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > labnetwork mailing list > > > labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu > > > https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork > > > > > > > > > > From diadiuk at MIT.EDU Mon Oct 17 09:32:27 2011 From: diadiuk at MIT.EDU (Vicky Diadiuk) Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:32:27 -0400 Subject: [labnetwork] Sputtering of As2Se3 and RIE In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5A9D9318-E408-4A46-BC15-EA34B3917680@mit.edu> HI, From what I learnt when we got such a request, you shld also worry abt "memory effects" from the Se Normally systems are used exclusively for chalcogenides since reproducibility is shot for any proceses thereafter (even after cleaning). Processing Zinc Selenide is the only request we've ever turned down at MTL ... (we found them a company that works on chalcogenides to collaborate with). Gd luck, Vicky On Oct 14, 2011, at 9:43 AM, Matthieu Nannini, Dr. wrote: > Dear lab network, > > I received a request for sputtering and RIE of chalcogenide glass > out of a As2Se3 target. At first sight the As contamination worries > me a lot. First it will contaminate the chamber then we will need to > clean that taking all necessary precautions as per As. > Anyone as experience regarding those kind of processes ? > > ----------------------------------- > Matthieu Nannini > McGill Nanotools Microfab > Manager > t: 514 398 3310 > c: 514 758 3311 > f: 514 398 8434 > http://miam2.physics.mcgill.ca/ > ------------------------------------ > > > _______________________________________________ > labnetwork mailing list > labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu > https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork From ccgrot01 at louisville.edu Thu Oct 20 15:14:51 2011 From: ccgrot01 at louisville.edu (Caitlin Grothaus) Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:14:51 -0400 Subject: [labnetwork] Gold Wire for Wire Bonding Message-ID: Hi Everyone, Here at UofL we're going to be buying gold wire for wire bonding soon. We're currently looking for a vendor and are wondering if any of you have recommendations. Thanks! Caitlin Grothaus -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From helenandersonpenn at gmail.com Fri Oct 21 14:46:58 2011 From: helenandersonpenn at gmail.com (Helen Anderson) Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:46:58 -0400 Subject: [labnetwork] lab security partnerships Message-ID: Folks, I'm interested in getting several nanofab lab managers to work on a security project which would have the potential to become a presentation at UGIM 2012. Specifically, I am interested in figuring out how lab managers can protect their labs from anti-nanotechnology terrorists and from having lab chemicals misappropriated then used for terrorism. I plan to do a survey of lab managers and also contact various government organizations to figure out what training and partnerships are available. http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-s-senator-seeks-federal-role-in-protecting-university-researchers-from-nanoterrorists/37390 If you are interested in working with me on this project, please let me know. -Helen Helen Anderson Penn Engineering From rmorrison at draper.com Fri Oct 21 15:54:38 2011 From: rmorrison at draper.com (Morrison, Richard H., Jr.) Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:54:38 -0400 Subject: [labnetwork] lab security partnerships In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <94CDEF5D18F0BB4A85B1D78EFBDD6FDA04FB9018@exchbk1.draper.com> That is a very interesting topic, here at Draper we have not really thought about that. We are very tight on person security because we have many classified contract. I would like to be a part of this. We are starting construction on a new Microfabrication facility in November to be populated in July 2012. So keep me on your list. Rick -----Original Message----- From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Helen Anderson Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 2:47 PM To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu Subject: [labnetwork] lab security partnerships Folks, I'm interested in getting several nanofab lab managers to work on a security project which would have the potential to become a presentation at UGIM 2012. Specifically, I am interested in figuring out how lab managers can protect their labs from anti-nanotechnology terrorists and from having lab chemicals misappropriated then used for terrorism. I plan to do a survey of lab managers and also contact various government organizations to figure out what training and partnerships are available. http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-s-senator-seeks-federal-role-in-prot ecting-university-researchers-from-nanoterrorists/37390 If you are interested in working with me on this project, please let me know. -Helen Helen Anderson Penn Engineering _______________________________________________ labnetwork mailing list labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork From neil.peters at sjsu.edu Fri Oct 21 16:15:54 2011 From: neil.peters at sjsu.edu (Neil Peters) Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:15:54 -0700 Subject: [labnetwork] Gold Wire for Wire Bonding In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: California Fine Wire Company is the place we have used in the past Best Regards Neil On Oct 20, 2011 5:33 PM, "Caitlin Grothaus" wrote: > Hi Everyone, > Here at UofL we're going to be buying gold wire for wire bonding soon. > We're currently looking for a vendor and are wondering if any of you have > recommendations. Thanks! > > Caitlin Grothaus > > _______________________________________________ > labnetwork mailing list > labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu > https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kuhn1 at purdue.edu Mon Oct 24 14:10:53 2011 From: kuhn1 at purdue.edu (Kuhn, Jeffrey G) Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:10:53 -0400 Subject: [labnetwork] Air Compressor for Grade 1.1.1 Air Message-ID: Hello All, We are planning to purchase a backup air compressor to produce electronics grade air (Grade 1.1.1) for our cleanroom and laboratories here Birck. I am able to source an oil-flooded compressor for about 1/3 the cost of an oil free unit. In order to protect the cleanroom from hydrocarbons, we would need to install a series of particulate filters, separators, oil mist filters, and vapor adsorbers after the compressor. However, it appears we can achieve the air quality we need and still realize a lower system installation cost with an oil-flooded compressor versus an oil-free unit. Our current air compressor is oil-free and I have little experience with oil-flooded designs. Do any of your facilities use an oil-flooded compressor for Grade 1.1.1 air, and if so what have your experiences been? I'd be interested in learning about filter change frequencies, annual maintenance costs (vs. oil-free), and of course whether there have been any unexpected contamination issues caused directly or indirectly by an oil-flooded compressor (hopefully the latter has not happened). Thank you in advance for your thoughts. Jeff Kuhn Facility Engineer Birck Nanotechnology Center Purdue University 1205 W. State St. West Lafayette, IN 47907 Ph: (765) 496-8329 Fax: (765) 496-2018 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From helenandersonpenn at gmail.com Mon Oct 24 16:12:15 2011 From: helenandersonpenn at gmail.com (Helen Anderson) Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:12:15 -0400 Subject: [labnetwork] lab security partnerships In-Reply-To: <7D9F9EB8-9A91-4E73-91A2-B11841F7BAA2@illinois.edu> References: <7D9F9EB8-9A91-4E73-91A2-B11841F7BAA2@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Great, thanks for volunteering! It's a nice mix of University-Government-Industry. We'll send occasional updates to the mailing list. -Helen Helen Anderson Penn Engineering On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 12:44 PM, Hughes, John S wrote: > > Hello Helen, > > We have had to deal with this issue quite a bit over the last few years. > I would be happy to work with you and discuss our experiences and the > actions we took to better secure our hazardous materials. > > Best regards, > John. > > ------------------------------------------------------------- > John S. Hughes Office: (217) 333-4674 > Associate Director FAX: (217) 244-6375 > Laboratory Operations hughes at illinois.edu > Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory > University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign > 3114 Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory > 208 North Wright Street > Urbana, Illinois 61801 http://mntl.illinois.edu > ------------------------------------------------------------- > > On Oct 21, 2011, at 1:46 PM, Helen Anderson wrote: > > Folks, > > I'm interested in getting several nanofab lab managers to work on a > security project which would have the potential to become a > presentation at UGIM 2012. Specifically, I am interested in figuring > out how lab managers can protect their labs from anti-nanotechnology > terrorists and from having lab chemicals misappropriated then used for > terrorism. I plan to do a survey of lab managers and also contact > various government organizations to figure out what training and > partnerships are available. > > > http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-s-senator-seeks-federal-role-in-protecting-university-researchers-from-nanoterrorists/37390 > > If you are interested in working with me on this project, please let me > know. > > -Helen > Helen Anderson > Penn Engineering > > _______________________________________________ > labnetwork mailing list > labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu > https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From agregg at abbiegregg.com Tue Oct 25 12:10:02 2011 From: agregg at abbiegregg.com (Abbie Gregg) Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:10:02 -0400 Subject: [labnetwork] lab security partnerships In-Reply-To: References: <7D9F9EB8-9A91-4E73-91A2-B11841F7BAA2@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <5863FB4055D90542A7A7DAE0CEF2ACB0067BC9CE85@E2K7CCR1.netvigour.com> Hi Helen, Great to hear from you via Labnetwork! AGI would be interested to learn about this topic so we can incorporate findings into our world class nanofab designs. Please let me know how we might get involved. Best Regards, Abbie Gregg President Abbie Gregg, Inc. 1130 East University Drive, Suite 105 Tempe, Arizona 85281 Phone 480 446-8000 x 107 Cell 480-577-5083 FAX 480-446-8001 email agregg at abbiegregg.com website www.abbiegregg.com CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: All information contained in or attached to this email constitutes confidential information belonging to Abbie Gregg, Inc., its affiliates and subsidiaries and/or its clients. This email and any attachments are proprietary and/or confidential and are intended for business use of the addressee(s) only. All other uses or disclosures are strictly prohibited. If the reader is not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that the perusal, copying or dissemination of this email is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender, and delete all copies of this message and its attachments immediately. From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Helen Anderson Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 1:12 PM To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu Subject: Re: [labnetwork] lab security partnerships Great, thanks for volunteering! It's a nice mix of University-Government-Industry. We'll send occasional updates to the mailing list. -Helen Helen Anderson Penn Engineering On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 12:44 PM, Hughes, John S > wrote: Hello Helen, We have had to deal with this issue quite a bit over the last few years. I would be happy to work with you and discuss our experiences and the actions we took to better secure our hazardous materials. Best regards, John. ------------------------------------------------------------- John S. Hughes Office: (217) 333-4674 Associate Director FAX: (217) 244-6375 Laboratory Operations hughes at illinois.edu Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 3114 Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory 208 North Wright Street Urbana, Illinois 61801 http://mntl.illinois.edu ------------------------------------------------------------- On Oct 21, 2011, at 1:46 PM, Helen Anderson wrote: Folks, I'm interested in getting several nanofab lab managers to work on a security project which would have the potential to become a presentation at UGIM 2012. Specifically, I am interested in figuring out how lab managers can protect their labs from anti-nanotechnology terrorists and from having lab chemicals misappropriated then used for terrorism. I plan to do a survey of lab managers and also contact various government organizations to figure out what training and partnerships are available. http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-s-senator-seeks-federal-role-in-protecting-university-researchers-from-nanoterrorists/37390 If you are interested in working with me on this project, please let me know. -Helen Helen Anderson Penn Engineering _______________________________________________ labnetwork mailing list labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu https://www-mtl.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo.cgi/labnetwork -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vincent.luciani at nist.gov Fri Oct 28 08:36:39 2011 From: vincent.luciani at nist.gov (Luciani, Vincent) Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 08:36:39 -0400 Subject: [labnetwork] Clean room contractors Message-ID: <01F47D4EDEEC64488C10B767D15E48580BB38C82C1@MBCLUSTER.xchange.nist.gov> Good Morning All, We are in the early stages of preparing a solicitation for a multiyear, multi-award, contract for construction and tool install services in and outside our clean room. The government competition, evaluation and award process can be very time consuming and has huge implications for our NanoFab. As we all know, it can be difficult to find people who know the best practices for our special needs. A common failure mode for us is lack of qualified bidders. Many companies do not monitor FedBizOps (www.fbo.gov) on a regular basis. We are in the market research phase and I am seeking out qualified general contractors that I can contact to discuss this upcoming opportunity and put on the notification list. If you have any recommendations of companies that you have been pleased with would be interested in some work at the CNST NanoFab at the NIST, Gaithersburg, MD campus, please send me their name or pass my contact information on to them. Labnetwork has been a very valuable forum for me. Thanks folks. Vince Luciani Vincent K. Luciani NanoFab Manager Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology 100 Bureau Drive, MS 6201 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-6200 USA +1-301-975-2886 [cid:image001.jpg at 01CC954C.D0D49E70] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 6965 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: From vito.logiudice at uwaterloo.ca Fri Oct 28 09:17:52 2011 From: vito.logiudice at uwaterloo.ca (Vito Logiudice) Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:17:52 +0000 Subject: [labnetwork] Staff time tracking methods used Message-ID: Hello all, At this time, time spent (training, process) by our staff in supporting our fab user base here at uWaterloo is tracked via pen and paper. I would appreciate it if the community would kindly provide insight as to the methods used at their respective facilities. For example, we'd like the ability to make it very simple for staff to immediately enter time spent on user support into some sort of computerized, central database which is designed with a very "friendly" and easy to use human interface. I'm curious if the community uses home-grown solutions towards this aim or whether robust commercial solutions are being used which might serve our needs well. Thanks in advance for your insights and recommendations. Regards, Vito Logiudice -- Vito Logiudice P.Eng. Director of Operations, Quantum NanoFab University of Waterloo 200 University Avenue West Waterloo, ON Canada N2L 3G1 Tel: 1-519-888-4567 ext. 38703 Email: vlogiudi at uwaterloo.ca -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From shott at stanford.edu Fri Oct 28 12:57:42 2011 From: shott at stanford.edu (John Shott) Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:57:42 -0700 Subject: [labnetwork] Staff time tracking methods used In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4EAADF06.70408@stanford.edu> Vito: We, and a number of the other labs that run Coral use that for tracking staff time. There is a separation between "staff activity" (typically processing, tool characterization, etc) and "training" activities because a number of labs charge a different hourly rate based on whether things are training or not. Even if they don't charge different rates, most folks want to be able to differentiate between training activities and other staff activities so that they have a better idea of how their limited staff resources are deployed. As I would be unable to give you an unbiased view, I'll not comment on the degree to which it is a friendly and easy to use human interface. My guess is that some folks running Coral will tell you that that the user interface for charging staff time is fine .... and others will tell you that they dislike it. Thanks, John On 10/28/2011 6:17 AM, Vito Logiudice wrote: > Hello all, > > At this time, time spent (training, process) by our staff in > supporting our fab user base here at uWaterloo is tracked via pen and > paper. I would appreciate it if the community would kindly provide > insight as to the methods used at their respective facilities. For > example, we'd like the ability to make it very simple for staff to > immediately enter time spent on user support into some sort of > computerized, central database which is designed with a very > "friendly" and easy to use human interface. I'm curious if the > community uses home-grown solutions towards this aim or whether robust > commercial solutions are being used which might serve our needs well. > > Thanks in advance for your insights and recommendations. > > Regards, > Vito Logiudice From rmorrison at draper.com Fri Oct 28 13:04:43 2011 From: rmorrison at draper.com (Morrison, Richard H., Jr.) Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:04:43 -0400 Subject: [labnetwork] Clean room contractors In-Reply-To: <01F47D4EDEEC64488C10B767D15E48580BB38C82C1@MBCLUSTER.xchange.nist.gov> References: <01F47D4EDEEC64488C10B767D15E48580BB38C82C1@MBCLUSTER.xchange.nist.gov> Message-ID: <94CDEF5D18F0BB4A85B1D78EFBDD6FDA050780D5@exchbk1.draper.com> Hi Everyone, We just finished selection for our new cleanroom, we hired an architecture firm, then a construction manager and a commissioning agent. Here is our list of people that we contacted for our job. Architects 1. F. H. Chase 2. Richmond Group 3. Signet Harris 4. Advance TEC 5. R.E. Dinneen Architects and Planners, INC. 6. Wilson Architects 7. Winter Street Architects 8. SMRT (eventual winner) 9. HDR (2nd place winner) Construction managers 1.0 Hodess Construction (eventual winner) 2.0 JM Coull (2nd place) 3.0 Turner Construction 4.0 Bond Brothers 5.0 Gilbane Commissioning agents 1.0 Hallam-ICS (eventual winner) 2.0 Sebesta Blomberg 3.0 RDK Our methodology was to search the web and get references, send our proposal out to bidders, have a walkthrough of the site, receive the bids, rank them invite 3 in for a dog and pony show, check references and chose the winner. So over a 2 month period we selected the architect/ construction manager and commissioning agents. A very crazy 2 months. If I can be of any help call or email. Rick Rick Morrison Senior Member Technical Staff Group Leader Microfabrication Operations Draper Laboratory 555 Technology Square Cambridge, MA 02139 W 617-258-3420 C 508-930-3461 From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Luciani, Vincent Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 8:37 AM To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu Subject: [labnetwork] Clean room contractors Good Morning All, We are in the early stages of preparing a solicitation for a multiyear, multi-award, contract for construction and tool install services in and outside our clean room. The government competition, evaluation and award process can be very time consuming and has huge implications for our NanoFab. As we all know, it can be difficult to find people who know the best practices for our special needs. A common failure mode for us is lack of qualified bidders. Many companies do not monitor FedBizOps (www.fbo.gov) on a regular basis. We are in the market research phase and I am seeking out qualified general contractors that I can contact to discuss this upcoming opportunity and put on the notification list. If you have any recommendations of companies that you have been pleased with would be interested in some work at the CNST NanoFab at the NIST, Gaithersburg, MD campus, please send me their name or pass my contact information on to them. Labnetwork has been a very valuable forum for me. Thanks folks. Vince Luciani Vincent K. Luciani NanoFab Manager Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology 100 Bureau Drive, MS 6201 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-6200 USA +1-301-975-2886 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 6965 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: From vincent.luciani at nist.gov Fri Oct 28 15:38:06 2011 From: vincent.luciani at nist.gov (Luciani, Vincent) Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:38:06 -0400 Subject: [labnetwork] Staff time tracking methods used In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <01F47D4EDEEC64488C10B767D15E48580BB38C82CC@MBCLUSTER.xchange.nist.gov> We have embraced Stanford's CORAL software to manage our tool usage time as well as staff time charges. In addition to tracking usage charges for users, we created projects for Staff training, service, process development etc. so that we can easily track and analyze tool cost recovery efficiency and usage trends. Good Luck, Vince Luciani Vincent K. Luciani NanoFab Manager Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology 100 Bureau Drive, MS 6201 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-6200 USA +1-301-975-2886 [cid:image001.jpg at 01CC9587.A8BCF0A0] From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Vito Logiudice Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 9:18 AM To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu Subject: [labnetwork] Staff time tracking methods used Hello all, At this time, time spent (training, process) by our staff in supporting our fab user base here at uWaterloo is tracked via pen and paper. I would appreciate it if the community would kindly provide insight as to the methods used at their respective facilities. For example, we'd like the ability to make it very simple for staff to immediately enter time spent on user support into some sort of computerized, central database which is designed with a very "friendly" and easy to use human interface. I'm curious if the community uses home-grown solutions towards this aim or whether robust commercial solutions are being used which might serve our needs well. Thanks in advance for your insights and recommendations. Regards, Vito Logiudice -- Vito Logiudice P.Eng. Director of Operations, Quantum NanoFab University of Waterloo 200 University Avenue West Waterloo, ON Canada N2L 3G1 Tel: 1-519-888-4567 ext. 38703 Email: vlogiudi at uwaterloo.ca -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 6965 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: