REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) - VARIABLE PRESSURE FIELD EMISSION SCANNING ELECTION MICROSCOPE

N00164-18-S-NB68 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) - VARIABLE PRESSURE FIELD EMISSION SCANNING ELECTION MICROSCOPE - FSC 6640 - NAICS 334516 Issue Date: 13 APR 2018 - Closing Date: 04 MAY 2018 - 2:00 PM EDT I. Request for Information: The Government is issuing this RFI as part of a market survey in accordance with FAR 15.201(e) to determine the availability of sources to provide a variable pressure field emission scanning electron microscope at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane, IN. This RFI is published to obtain information for use by NSWC Crane Division, for market research and planning purposes only; and is not a Request for Proposal, Invitation for Bid, or an announcement of a solicitation. There is no bid package or solicitation document associated with this announcement. This RFI is part of a continuous process for obtaining the latest information on the commercial status of the industry with respect to current and near-term abilities. Response to this RFI is strictly voluntary and will not affect any potential offeror's ability to submit an offer if a solicitation is released. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of preparing submissions in response to this RFI and the Government's use of such information. The scope of this effort is as follows: The purpose of this requirement is to obtain a Variable Pressure Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (VP FE-SEM). The system shall include the following: 1. General a) The VP FE-SEM shall be capable of attaining a 1KV 20X (or lower) image free of any beam distortion or column cropping. b) An Energy Dispersive X-Ray Microanalysis (EDS) system shall be included. c) A fully focusing Wavelength Dispersive Spectrometer (WDS) system with 5 crystals shall be included. d) A UPS battery back-up for the entire system must be provided. The UPS must maintain power during an outage for at least 30-40 minutes. The UPS must be a one piece unit with any batteries included in the main unit. No separate battery unit will be included. e) The VP FE-SEM must have a Vibration Isolation Platform system. Must include a lift and casters to install the platform under the VP FE-SEM. 2. VP FE-SEM Electron Optics a) The VP FESEM shall have a Schottky (thermal) Field Emission electron beam source. b) The system must have an automatic emitter run-up procedure to ensure safe controlled run-up of the target emitter conditions. c) The maximum Probe Current attainable with this system shall be 200nA or better. d) Magnification Range: 10 - 600,000 or better. e) Accelerating Voltage: 500V- 30 kV or better. f) Analytical working distance will be no less than 6 mm. g) The electron column shall be capable of producing a minimum image resolution of 1.2nm (nano-meter) at 30kV (Kilo-volt), 3.0nm or better at 1 kV. The resolution shall be demonstrated on gold on carbon resolution standard before acceptance at installation. h) The system must have selectable apertures and must be designed so that contamination deposition on them shall not be a problem. i) The system must have a 60 degree conical final lens or better. 3. Chamber & Stage a) The specimen chamber shall be a large analytical design that is sufficiently large enough to accommodate 5 axes X-Y-Z-Theta (rotate)-tilt stage. b) Minimum Specimen size shall be 200mm diameter with 80mm height. c) The specimen chamber shall have enough accessory ports to accommodate simultaneously the following detectors and accessories: back scatter electron detector, EDS X-ray spectrometer, WDS detector, and IR camera. d) The chamber must have an Air Lock or Intro Chamber attached to it so samples can be inserted without breaking chamber vacuum. e) A retractable Faraday Cup shall be included. f) At minimum a joystick shall be included for stage movement. If available a trackball/joystick combination stage control unit shall be included. g) A mount to hold four mounting stubs shall be included. h) The specimen chamber shall be equipped with an infrared video chamber camera to allow continuous monitoring of SEM chamber via one of the SEM's displays. i) The stage must be a 5-axis motorized eucentric. j) Stage movement will be at minimum: X= 100mm, Y= 50mm, Z= 3 to 65mm, T= -20 to +90 degrees, and R= 360 degrees. 4. Vacuum System a) The vacuum system shall include a turbo molecular pump backed by a dry pumping system for a contamination free vacuum system. There shall be an ion getter pump for ultra-high vacuum in the emitter region and column. b) The electron gun and column shall be differentially pumped by ion pumps. c) The time to achieve an operating vacuum after a specimen exchange that requires opening the specimen chamber shall not exceed 5 minutes. d) The vacuum system sequencing shall be fully automatic at power up and after specimen change. e) The vacuum system shall have indicators to indicate the status of the vacuum sequence. f) Interlocks shall be incorporated to provide fail-safe protection of the equipment in the event of a loss of electrical power, coolant, primary vacuum, or secondary vacuum. g) Retractable detectors and adjustable selectable apertures must be able to be inserted and retracted at any time while the beam is on and live imaging is being performed. h) Baking of the optical column must be performable by the operator without the requirement of a service engineer. i) The vacuum system must work properly with the primary vacuum pump located at least 42 feet from the system. j) If a water cooling system is needed by the VP FE-SEM vendor it must be an air cooled type. The cooling system must work properly with the air cooled chiller located at least 42 feet from the system. 5. Detectors a) A high efficiency in-lens detector has to be integrated into the column design. b) A specimen current monitor that can be read on the display will be provided. c) A lateral Everhart-Thornley SE-detector mounted at the specimen chamber has to be provided. d) Any special Variable Pressure imaging detectors shall be included. e) A retractable 4 Quadrant Si Backscattered Electron Detector at minimum shall be included. f) Mixing of different signals must be possible at any ratio. 6. Scan Controls& Display a) The system shall have full frame scan, reduced area scan, line scan profile, split screen, and spot mode. b) The system shall have dual image display. c) Tilt Compensation with variable amplitude and any possible advanced Tilt Compensation features shall be provided. d) The system shall be capable of digital image capture, store, and display. As a minimum, image file save format types shall include BMP, TIFF, and JPEG. e) The system shall have data display of accelerating voltage, magnification, WD, stage positions and other pertinent information. f) It must be possible to enter data from the SEM system keyboard anywhere on the displayed image. g) The system must have image capturing and stitching capability to stitch several images together to cover a larger area. h) The system shall have an external scan interface to allow direct control of the SEM column scan coils by a remote digital scan generator such as that furnished with an EDS system for elemental and mapping/linescan analysis. i) The system shall be capable of making point-to-point measurements on the displayed digital image. j) Measurements orientation capability shall be at all angles, with angle value input automatic or manual. k) The system shall be controlled by a keypad, mouse, and joystick located on the main console. l) The system will be configured with a Control Panel with dedicated knobs for at least these functions: brightness, contrast, magnification, focusing and astigmatism. 7. Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) System a) The contractor will provide an EDS system from a separate manufacturer to attach to the VP FE-SEM. b) The system shall have an Advanced package capable of image display, X-ray mapping, linescan analysis, standardless, standards quantitative chemical analysis, functionality for acquiring overlap and background corrected X-ray maps and linescans in real-time, functionality that automatically turns information contained in a set of X-ray maps into a single image to visualize both phase and Chemical variation in a specimen and unique reactive and predictive specimen drift correction functionality. c) Must include the ability to do large area mapping. d) Image display on the EDS system monitor shall have equivalent quality and resolution as required for the VP FE-SEM display. The spectral imaging capability shall collect and store spectral information at every beam scan point. e) If the EDS software is to be installed on a separate computer. f) The separate computer supplied for the EDS will meet the requirements of section 8 below. g) The VP FE-SEM system mouse and keyboard will be able to control the EDS system. h) Detector Resolution: The FWHM resolution must be in a range of 127eV at minimum. i) Detector: The detector will be the SDD type with a size of at least 80 mm2. 8. Wavelength Dispersive Spectrometer (WDS) System a) A fully focusing Wavelength Dispersive Spectrometer (WDS) system that has 5 crystals. The crystals quoted shall be: LiF(200) - PET - TAP - LSM60 - LSM200. b) The WDS shall operate in unison with the EDS system. c) It shall be controlled by the EDS computer. The WDS software shall be of the advanced level similar to the EDS system. 9. PC minimum requirements a) The VP-FESEM computer: 1) The computer connected to this VP FE-SEM must be high grade PC with Windows 10 operating system. If Windows 10 is not available Windows 7 is acceptable only if Window 10 will be provided in the future with a free upgrade. 2) Will be supplied with two monitors of the largest size possible, at least 24 inch minimum to 32 inch maximum size. 3) Will have Microsoft Office 2010 Professional. 4) Will have at least one DVD/RW drive. 5) Will have an internal archive hard drive of at least 5Tb. 6) Will have latest version of vendor's software. b) The EDS/WDS computer: 1) The computer connected to this VP FE-SEM must be high grade PC with Windows 10 operating system. If Windows 10 is not available Windows 7 is acceptable only if Window 10 will be provided in the future with a free upgrade. 2) Will be supplied with one monitor of the largest size possible, at least 24 inch minimum to 32 inch maximum size. 3) Will have Microsoft Office 2010 Professional. 4) Will have at least one DVD/RW drive. 5) Will have an internal archive hard drive of at least 5Tb 6) Will have latest version of vendor's software. c) An Ergotech type monitor stand shall be provided to hold all the monitors. 10. 3D Mapping software (Option) a) 3D Mapping software for Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM). The 3D Mapping must be of a standard level, and must include the ability to do grain/particle analysis. Software must be able to map an SEM image to determine step heights of .1uM or less. Must also include any reference manuals available. Information may be submitted by any government or non-government entity including commercial firms, non-profit organizations, and any institutions of higher education with degree-granting programs in science and /or engineering (universities), or by consortia compromising such concerns. The Crane Division encourages participation by small business, small disadvantaged business, HUB zone small business, woman-owned small business, veteran-owned small business, and historically black colleges and universities. The Government may choose to visit, or host a visit from, any potential sources. This request for information/sources sought synopsis in no way implies either implicitly or explicitly that respondents will be compensated in any way by the Government for information provided. II. BACKGROUND: The Trusted Microelectronics Engineering Branch, Code GXMV, at NSWC Crane has a requirement for the acquisition of a Variable Pressure Field Emission Scanning Microscope (VP FE-SEM). The VP FE-SEM will be used to do advanced failure analysis techniques. III. Responses shall be: 1) Responses are requested by 1400/2:00PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time (EDT) on 04 May 2018. Any response received after this date will also be considered but may not be included in initial reporting or assessments. 2) All responses should be given in PDF format and emailed to the contracting point of contract: Mr. Ellen McDaniel at ellen.mcdaniel@navy.mil. The subject line of the email should include the RFI number (N00164-18-S-NB68) and the respondent's name. If necessary, files too large for email can be sent via CD or by utilizing AMRDEC SAFE at https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/safe/ by the same response date to: Ms. Ellen McDaniel Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division 300 HWY 361, BLD 121 Crane, IN 47522 3) Responses should not exceed six (6) pages and should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman font, single spaced with 1-inch margins. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked proprietary will be handled accordingly. 4) A suggested submission organization: a) A cover letter (optional). b) A cover page identifying the RFI number (N00164-18-S-NB68), the company name, mailing address, email address, telephone and fax numbers, website address (if available), duns number, cage code and/or tax ID number, business size category (large, small, small disadvantaged, etc.), and the name, telephone number, and e-mail address of a point of contact having the authority and knowledge to clarify responses with Government representatives. c) No more than five (5) pages including: 1. Objective: Clear and concise statement of the manufacturing and/or design capabilities of your organization. 2. Describe the capabilities of your organization in detail. 3. Describe any history that meets the requirements. 4. Characteristics, specifications, and certifications your organization holds as related to the capabilities, interests/focus items above, to include the below as applicable: a. Identify your organizations experience with xenon difluoride etch tools. b. Identify your organization's refurbished products that are currently fielded and by whom. c. Intellectual property claims (if any). d. Explain how quality control is incorporated in your processes. e. Earliest availability for a technical demonstration at no cost or risk to the government. 5. Cost or pricing information to be used as Market Research for pricing history. 6. The VP FE-SEM shall be capable of attaining a 1KV 20X (or lower image free of any beam distortion or column cropping. The vendor shall provide with their submission an image on a sample of their choosing to show they can meet this requirement. The image must be acquired in the high vacuum mode of operation using the lower secondary electron detector. No special software, column settings, or stitched images shall be used to acquire the image. Per Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.215-3 Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (Oct 1997): a) The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited except as an allowable cost under other contracts as provided in subsection 31.205-18, Bid and proposal costs, of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. (b) Although "proposal" and "offeror" may be used in this Request for Information, your response will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a proposal. All responses shall be unclassified. All assumptions, including any assumed Government support, shall be clearly identified. All proprietary and restricted information shall be clearly marked. All information marked as proprietary information will be safeguarded to prevent disclosures to non-government personnel and entities. Contractors must be properly registered in the Government System for Award Management database (SAM). Offerors may obtain information on SAM registration and annual confirmation requirements by calling 1-866-606-8220, or via the Internet at www.sam.gov. This request for information does not constitute an Invitation for Bids (IFB), a Request for Quote (RFQ) or a Request for Proposal (RFP) and it should not be construed as a commitment of any kind by the Government to issue a formal solicitation or ultimately award a contract. The US Government is in no way liable to pay for or reimburse any companies or entities that respond to this announcement. Any costs incurred by interested companies in response to this announcement will NOT be reimbursed. All information received in response to this notice that is marked proprietary will be handled accordingly. No contract will be awarded by issuing this RFI. Acknowledgement of receipt of responses will not be made, nor will respondents be notified of the NSWC Crane's view of the information received. Do not send any material that requires a non-disclosure agreement or identify information that is business sensitive. Responses to this notice will not be returned. Telephone calls/questions or inquiries will not be accepted. All information provided becomes U.S. Navy property and will not be returned. All proprietary information will be treated appropriately. Your interest in this response is appreciated. White papers may be submitted any time prior to expiration of this announcement. Electronic submissions and hard copy submissions will be reviewed if received by the closing date and time. All information marked as proprietary information will be safeguarded to prevent disclosures to non-governmental personnel and entities. Submissions regarding this announcement may be directed to the Contract Specialist, Ms. Ellen McDaniel, telephone: 812-854-5315, e-mail: ellen.mcdaniel@navy.mil. The mailing address is: COMMANDER; ATTN MS ELLEN MCDANIEL BLDG 121; NAVSURFWARCENDIV; 300 HIGHWAY 361; CRANE, IN 47522-5001. Please reference: Request for Information/Sources Sought Announcement Number (N00164-18-S-NB68) when responding to this notice.