****Amendment 002***
The purpose of this amendment is to post the solicitation documents containing the Instructions to Quoters, the Evaluation Criteria and the Statement of Work. 

E-mail quotations are required. All quotations must be submitted via e-mail to Susan Ruzicka, Contract Specialist at [email protected].

Submission must be received not later than 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday 11September 2015. A quotation shall be considered received when it is received in the electronic inbox of Susan Ruzicka not later than the date and time identified herein.

All questions regarding this notice must be submitted via e-mail to [email protected] by 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday 31 August 2015.
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***Amendment 001***
The purpose of this amendment is to delete the site visit language included in the original notice.  This language was inadvertently copied over from a different solicitation and should not have been included in this notice.

There will be no site visit offered for this requirement.
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The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve quality of life.

The Materials Science and Engineering Division is involved in the development of manufacturing techniques for high quality ultrathin magnetic films and sensors, with the aim to produce films with precisely tailored thicknesses, well defined interfaces and strong crystalline texture. This work requires the heating of a substrate during physical vapor deposition of layers and/or during intermediate annealing/crystallization steps during a more complex growth process. The enhancement of the Magnetic Engineering Research Facility (MERF) Multi-Chamber Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) Tool will accomplish this critical infrastructural need by implementation of a heated stage capable of achieving satisfactory substrate heating that is suitable for a highly complex ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) multi-chamber system.

The MERF is a NIST designed and built unique materials growth and measurement facility, with a rich history of success in magnetic materials synthesis as well as UHV sputter system excellence. Led by the late William F. Egelhoff, Jr, a NIST Fellow in the Metallurgy Division, the MERF was a world leader in making layered thin-film giant magnetoresistance sensors - sensors which were then used as the read head on hard drives allowing for the storage of multiple gigabytes of data on a single disk. Successes in MERF facility can be tied back to the elaborate instrumentation of this magnetic thin-film deposition facility, possessing deposition, processing and in-situ characterization of magnetic thin films. Indeed, this facility pushed the threshold of standard PVD systems, leading companies to follow suit with their own commercial implementations of multi-target, multi-chamber UHV PVD tools.

The objective of this procurement is to purchase a temperature-controlled heater stage with two angle rotation and linear translation to upgrade the Multi-Chamber Physical Vapor Deposition Tool including accessories, installation, training and warranty. The heater stage and all accessories shall be installed on the PVD at NIST Gaithersburg, Maryland.

The NAICS code for this requirement is 334516 with a small business size standard of 500 Employees. Simplified Acquisition Procedures shall be utilized under the authority FAR Part 13. This requirement is 100% set-aside for small business.

The competitive Request for Quotation (RFQ), amendments, and all questions and answers related to this procurement shall be made available via the Internet at HTTP://WWW.FEDBIZOPPS.GOV under RFQ number SB1341-15-RQ-0909.

Potential quoters shall be responsible for obtaining this solicitation and related amendments, if any, from www.fbo.gov after the solicitation has been posted. It is, and will continue to be, the responsibility of each potential quoter to monitor www.fbo.gov for any amendments or other information related to the solicitation.

Any communications regarding this acquisition must be made in writing and forwarded via email to [email protected], and shall identify the solicitation number, company name, company address, as well as point of contact email address and phone number.

NIST anticipates posting the solicitation approximately ten (10) days after the date of publication of this notice.

Bid Protests Not Available