[labnetwork] support of High End SEM and FIB tools

[Luciani, Vincent]

Good Morning Tom,


1.       Service Contracts:  The quality and responsiveness of the service seems to be declining.

2.       Time and materials:  OK for many tools but have not been able to make it work for high end metrology tools.

3.       Insurance companies:   Hate it.  Slow, cumbersome, ineffective.

One of the issues that continually comes up for these higher end tools is that the OEM's play games with spare parts availability for 3rd party buyers.

In general, here at CNST and at other fabs in the past, if I have spare parts and repair expertise to mitigate the risk of long down times, the internal service tech is much more cost effective and brings so many other benefits.  Of course your organizations labor burden rate is a key factor in the calculations.

For example, if parts are easy to get and/or I have (functional) tool redundancy and the expertise is in my staff or can be hired...I opt for the hire.  If I ever achieve that with SEM/TEM/FIB's and the like, I will not hesitate to give it a go.  Good topic for the forum

Vince


Vincent K. Luciani
NanoFab Manager
Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology<http://www.cnst.nist.gov/>
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, MS 6201
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-6200 USA
+1-301-975-2886





From: labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu [mailto:labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Ferraguto, Thomas
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2014 1:27 PM
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Subject: [labnetwork] support of High End SEM and FIB tools

Colleagues,

With the high cost of service contracts for all of the high-end metrology equipment, has anyone sought out hiring an internal tech that could handle most of the repairs?

There has been a lot of debate on , service contracts vs. time and materials  vs. insurance companies,(we're trying time and materials now) but has anyone looked into hiring internal support (or do the manufactures hold too much IP and leverage).

I'd appreciate your thoughts.


Best,

Thomas S. Ferraguto
ETIC Nanofabrication Laboratory Director
University of Massachusetts Lowell
1 University Avenue
Lowell MA 01854-5120
978-934-1809 land
617-755-0910 mobile
978-934-1014 fax
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