[labnetwork] Metered chemical dispensing?

[James Mitchell]

Why not charge by process the user is doing. Standardized processes would
include how much chemical would be used in a SOP. If a user abuses the
process limits they would pay a surcharge for the extra chemical they used.
If the excessive chemical usage continues the user would no longer be
welcomed.

Jim

On Tue, Dec 21, 2021, 4:14 PM Aaron Hryciw <ahryciw at ualberta.ca> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> In our open-access cleanroom, we provide common chemicals "free of
> charge", in the sense that there is no additional charge to use them apart
> from the tool time (e.g., hourly rate for wet deck login).  This includes
> such chemicals as acetone, IPA, photoresist developers, standard metal wet
> etchants, KOH, etc.; the cost of supplying the chemical is (at least in
> principle) wrapped up into the tool rate.  I believe that this is a fairly
> standard approach among cleanrooms in academic settings.
>
> A shortcoming of this approach is that high-volume chemical users are
> being charged the same as low-volume chemical users; there is also no
> (financial) incentive for users to limit their chemical usage to just the
> volume they need.  We are therefore looking into ways in which we can
> capture the actual volume of chemicals used by each user, at least for some
> high-value and/or high-volume chemicals, such that billing for
> chemical usage can be applied more fairly.  As global supply chain issues
> have increased the cost of chemicals, this is becoming even more important.
>
> Ideally, the method of capturing usage should be largely automated (e.g.,
> not just a physical chemical use logbook at each wet deck), such that it
> does not take a lot of staff bandwidth to administrate, and should not rely
> on the honour system only (e.g., logging usage of a material in our lab
> management software), to ensure compliance.
>
> One approach we have been considering is having some kind of metered
> chemical dispensing.  For instance, the piranha wet deck would be plumbed
> with dispensers (e.g., chemical-compatible metering pumps) for sulfuric
> acid and hydrogen peroxide, perhaps drawing from large drums of the stock
> chemicals housed remotely (e.g., in a subfab or service chase).  A
> qualified user would login to the dispenser (via our lab
> management software), dispense the required volumes of the chemicals,
> logout, and the volume used would be tracked and automatically logged to
> their account.
>
> I expect that such a scheme is not as simple as it seems, and that there
> are probably a host of engineering, software, and other logistical problems
> that would need to be solved to implement this safely and effectively, at
> least if a turnkey solution for this does not already exist.  Has anyone
> implemented anything like this in their own cleanroom?  Or is this a
> horribly over-engineered solution to a relatively minor problem?  I'd be
> very interested in hearing how others have dealt with the problem of
> charging users fairly for chemical usage.
>
> Cheers,
>
>  – Aaron
>
>
>
>
> Aaron Hryciw, PhD, PEng
>
> Fabrication Group Manager
>
> University of Alberta - nanoFAB
>
> W1-060 ECERF Building
>
> 9107 - 116 Street
>
> Edmonton, Alberta
>
> Canada T6G 2V4 Ph: 780-940-7938
> www.nanofab.ualberta.ca
>
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