The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) seeks information on commercial vendors that are capable of providing two horizontal Diffusion/Oxidation/LPCVD furnace stacks for processing wafers up to 200 mm in diameter. Each stack will be configured for two Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD) furnaces and two atmospheric furnaces.

The systems will be used to support nanofabrication in the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), NIST's nanotechnology user facility. The systems will be sited and used as a shared resource accessible to researchers from industry, academia, NIST, and other government agencies in the CNST NanoFab. After results of this market research are obtained and analyzed and specifications are developed for the Diffusion/Oxidation/LPCVD furnaces that can meet NIST's minimum requirements,

NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a Purchase Order. If at least two qualified small businesses are identified during this market research stage, then any competitive procurement that resulted would be conducted as a small business set-aside.

NIST intends to replace the existing systems with new systems in order to add the capability of processing 200 mm wafers in LPCVD processes and atmospheric processes. The systems will consist of two stacks having four tube furnaces.

1. General

Each furnace stack shall consist of two LPCVD horizontal furnaces and two atmospheric horizontal furnaces. The LPCVD furnaces will be used by NanoFab users to deposit silicon nitride, silicon dioxide and polysilicon. The atmospheric furnaces will be used for annealing, wet/dry oxidations and diffusions. All furnaces shall be capable of processing substrates 200 mm in diameter. The systems will be installed in a vertical laminar flow, class 100 cleanroom. Vacuum pumps for LPCVD furnaces will be located in the subfab beneath the process level. Each stack shall be equipped with a source cabinet that contains all process gas panels. Each stack shall be equipped with a cantilever load system and exhaust scavenger system at the load end. The systems shall be turnkey, complete with all required quartz or silicon carbide fixtures, gas panels and vacuum systems supplied by the vendor.

2. Atmospheric Furnaces

a. The furnace tubes will be horizontal.
b. The thermal flat zone shall be at least 12 inches long
c. The maximum temperature shall be ≥ 1300ºC
d. Capable of performing low temperature anneals ≤ 350ºC
e. Gas panels will have at least 5 gas channels
f. Two tubes shall be equipped with an external pyrogenic torch for wet oxidations
g. One tube shall be capable of forming gas anneal using 10% hydrogen in nitrogen or argon

3. LPCVD Furnace Stack

a. The furnace tubes will be horizontal.
b. The thermal flat zone shall be at least 12 inches long
c. The tubes will be configured for polysilicon, Low Temperature Oxide (LTO) and TEOS, and two silicon nitride.
d. Each furnace will be equipped with a vacuum system and associated instrumentation.

4. Soft Landing Load System

a. Each furnace shall be equipped with a soft landing load system.
b. A soft landing load system uses a cantilever to set a wafer carrier down inside of the tube and retracts such that no part of the cantilever is in the tube during the process cycle.

5. Consumables

a. Vendor shall supply all component necessary to begin using the furnaces upon installation.

6. Wafer Transport System

a. Each stack shall be equipped with a wafer transport system capable of loading each furnace in the stack.
b. The Wafer Transport System is a mechanized, digitally controlled mechanism that loads the wafers from a user load station onto the appropriate cantilever within the stack.
c. The wafer transport system shall support SEMI standard silicon wafers 50 mm, 75 mm, 100 mm, 150 mm, and 200 mm in diameter.
d. The wafer transport system shall support the processing of small irregular shaped wafer pieces up to 40 mm per side.
e. The wafer transport system shall be capable of manual loading at the user load station.

NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large, foreign, and small businesses. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 334516, as those domestic sources having 500 employees or less. Please include your company's size classification and socio-economic status in any response to this notice.

Companies that manufacture horizontal Diffusion/Oxidation/LPCVD furnaces are requested to email a detailed report describing their abilities to [email protected] no later than the response date for this sources sought notice. The report should include achievable specifications and any other information relevant to your product or capabilities.

 Also, the following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice:

1. Name of the company that manufactures the system components for which specifications are provided.

2. Name of company(s) that are authorized to sell the system components, their addresses, and a point of contact for the company (name, phone number, fax number and email address).

3. Indication of number of days, after receipt of order that is typical for delivery of such systems.

 4. Indication of whether each instrument for which specifications are sent to Lynda.Roark@nist.gov are currently on one or more GSA Federal Supply Schedule contracts and, if so, the GSA FSS contract number(s).

5. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in developing its minimum specifications and finalizing its market research.

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