SOLICITATION NOTICE
66 -- Vacuum Cryogenic Probe Station
- Notice Date
- 1/10/2007
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 334516
— Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- NB822110-7-02322
- Response Due
- 1/25/2007
- Archive Date
- 2/9/2007
- Description
- THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAT IN FAR SUBPART 12.6-STREAMLINED PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATION AND SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS-AS SUPPLEMENTED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION; QUOTATIONS ARE BEING REQUESTED, AND A WRITTEN SOLICITATION DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED. THIS SOLICITATION IS BEING ISSUED USING SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) SUBPART 13.5 TEST PROGRAM FOR CERTAIN COMMERCIAL ITEMS. This solicitation is a Request for Quotation (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-14. The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 334516 with a small business size standard of 500 employees. This acquisition is 100% set-aside for small business. In accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), to be considered for award under a small business set-aside, both the manufacturer and distributor must be a small business under the NAICS code classification identified above. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Manufacturing Metrology Division, as part of the Intrinsic Force Standards Competence Effort, has a requirement for a vacuum cryogenic probe station for the development and testing of instrumentation for low-temperature atomic break-junction experiments. Often, cryogenic probe stations are used for electronic testing of circuits and devices at low temperature, and the mechanical behavior of the station and the probes is not critical. In this case, however, the system will be used to test prototypes of ultra-sensitive mechanical devices, primarily custom-designed, state-of-the-art force and displacement transducers. This testing requires a system that is of sturdy physical construction and that is well isolated from external vibrations originating either from the floor (through a vibration isolation table) or from the vacuum pumping system (through flexible stainless-steel bellows pumping lines). Long operating cycles (10-12 hours or more) at a stable cryogenic operating temperature (for example, 5 K plus or minus 0.1 K) without any temperature excursions (glitches) caused by actions like the changing of the helium supply dewar are also required for successful device characterization. All quoters shall provide a quotation for a quantity of one (1) each Vacuum Cryogenic Probe Station, which meets or exceeds all of the following required specifications. All equipment must be new. BASIC SYSTEM 1. Vacuum chamber must accommodate up to six electrical or fiber probes simultaneously. Unused probe positions shall be sealed with blank plates suitable for additional customer-fabricated electrical and optical-fiber feed-throughs. At a minimum, the chamber must be able to accommodate specimens that are 50 mm in diameter by 10 mm high. Larger specimen sizes are preferred; 2. A minimum of four micro-manipulated electrical probes; 3. A minimum of one optical fiber probe (VIS) allowing optical measurements to be made anywhere on the specimen surface; 4. All probes must be maintained at the same temperature as the sample, for example, through thermal anchoring to the specimen cooling stage; 5. Each probe must be capable of minimum travel distances of 50 mm in the sample plane along probe axis, of 25 mm in the sample plane perpendicular to probe axis, and 12.5 mm perpendicular to sample plane; 6. The chamber must have a top view-port through which the sample can be observed; 7. The view-port must have IR-absorbing window; 8. The system must come with a complete optics system, including at a minimum, but not limited to a microscope, digital camera, computer and full-color display. The system must be able to resolve features as small as 3 micrometers in size. The system must include digital image transfer from camera to computer, and image storage capability. The camera must have four (4) megapixel minimum. The storage capability must be a minimum of 80 Gb; 9. The system must be designed in such a way that specimens can be tested quickly and easily. Specifically, it must be possible to install a specimen (at room temperature), evacuate the chamber, cool the specimen to 5 K, perform a (15 minute) measurement, warm the system back up, and remove the specimen (thereby being ready for the next test) all in four hours or less. Lesser time is preferred; 10. The specimen chamber must be able to be evacuated to 50 microTorr or better at room temperature in 1 hour or less. Pressure at the specimen with the radiation shields at LHe temperature (5 K) must be lower than 5 microTorr; 11. Pumping port must Klein Flansche (KF) size 40 or larger; 12. System must include a turbo molecular pumping station with oil-free diaphragm backing pump, vacuum gauge, display/ controller, vacuum valve(s) and required plumbing. Pump inlet pumping speed for Nitrogen must be greater than 200 l/s with an ISO 100 inlet flange. The vacuum system must include a stainless-steel vibration isolation bellows system between the probe chamber and the turbo molecular pump; 13. The system must include a liquid Helium transfer line and control valve; 14. The system must include a liquid Nitrogen dewar with compatible fitting(s) for use with the liquid Helium transfer line; 15. A temperature measurement diode must be furnished with the delivered system to calibrate the sample temperature. OPERATING TEMPERATURE REQUIREMENTS 1. The system must operate down to 5 kelvin or below with an automatically regulated temperature stability of plus or minus 0.1 K. This lower limit of temperature and temperature stability must be guaranteed and verified via an on-site demonstration prior to final acceptance; 2. The system must be able to operate at a maximum specimen temperature of at least 450 K; 3. The system must be configured to permit independent temperature control (heating or cooling) of the sample from that of the shielding; 4. The system must include all necessary controllers and power supplies for independent control and measurement of the sample and shielding temperatures. ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENT REQUIREMENTS 1. The system must be configured for electrical measurements from DC to 50 MHz (minimum); 2. The company must supply probes compatible with this system over a range of sizes (with tip radius ranging from 5 micrometers to 25 micrometers) made of W, BeCu or similar durable alloys; 3. All electrical connectors for connecting the probes and substrate to external test and measurement equipment must be triax and configured for guarded low-level measurements; 4. The system must have current leakage of less than 100 fA at 10 V on all cabling and feedthroughs (probe and substrate). LINE ITEM 0002: INSTALLATION: The Contractor shall install the probe station. Installation shall include, at a minimum, uncrating/unpackaging of all equipment, set-up and hook-up of all equipment, turn key start-up, and demonstration of all minimum specifications. LINE ITEM 0003: TRAINING: The Contractor shall provide training on-site at NIST Gaithersburg for three (3) NIST personnel. This training may commence immediately upon completion of installation. Training shall include, at a minimum, a thorough demonstration of all equipment functions, equipment operation and basic troubleshooting. Installation & training must be scheduled, in advance, with the NIST Technical Contact, (to be identified upon award.) LINE ITEM 0004: WARRANTY: The Contractor shall provide a warranty for the equipment. Warranty shall be a minimum of one (1) year in duration. Warranty shall commence upon completion of installation and successful demonstration of specifications. Warranty shall be on-site at NIST Gaithersburg, and include all parts, labor and travel. The Contractor shall provide a complete description of the warranty with their quotation. DELIVERY Delivery terms shall be FOB DESTINATION. Delivery, installation and training must be completed not later than 120 days after receipt of purchase order. FOB DESTINATION means: The Contractor shall pack and mark the shipment in conformance with carrier requirements, deliver the shipment in good order and condition to the point of delivery specified in the purchase order, be responsible for loss of and/or damage to the goods occurring before receipt and acceptance of the shipment by the consignee at the delivery point specified in the purchase order; and pay all charges to the specified point of delivery. EVALUATION CRITERIA AND BASIS FOR AWARD Award will be made to the Contractor whose quote offers the best value to the Government, technical, price, and other factors considered. The Government will evaluate quotations based on the following evaluation criteria: 1) Technical Capability: Meeting or Exceeding the Requirement, 2) Past Experience, 3) Past Performance, and Price. Technical Capability, Past Experience and Past Performance, when combined, are equal in importance to price. Evaluation of Technical Capability shall be based on the information provided in the quotation. Offerors shall include the manufacturer, make and model of the products, manufacturer sales literature or other product literature which addresses all specifications, and clearly documents that the offered products meet or exceed the specifications stated above. In evaluating technical capability, strongest consideration shall be given to: Best possible temperature stability over period of time, particularly at liquid helium temperatures; Fastest time for specimen exchange; and Largest specimen size. In addition, the Government has a desire to have this system mounted on a fully functional vibration isolation system. The vibration isolation system must provide isolation from floor vibrations and achieve the following: (a) Vibration transmissibility below 0.01 for frequencies above 10 Hz as measured between the floor and sample stage; (b) Resonance free isolation in vertical and horizontal directions beginning at 0.7 Hz, with floor to specimen vibration transmissibility that falls off at a rate of 40 dB per decade of frequency from resonance until 10 Hz and never rises above a value of 0.01 for frequencies between 10 Hz and 1000 Hz, such as is now typical of active vibration control mounts. Award is not contingent on this feature, however, if quoted, the Government will consider the purchase of this feature based on the value to the Government, technical merit and price considered. Past Experience will be evaluated to determine the degree of vendors? experience in successfully manufacturing comparable systems. The Contractor shall describe their previous experience in manufacturing, assembling and providing similar systems and provide the number of systems manufactured and provided. The degree of relevance between previously manufactured systems and the proposed system shall be considered. Past Performance shall be evaluated to determine the overall quality of the product and service provided by the Contractor. Evaluation of Past Performance shall be based on the references provided and information provide by NIST and its? affiliates. Quoters shall provide a list of at least three (3) references to whom the same or similar equipment has been provided within a three (3) year period. The list of references shall include, at a minimum: The name of the company or organization and the reference contact person; the telephone number of the reference contact person; the contract or grant number; the amount of the contract; the address and telephone number of the Contracting Officer if applicable; and the date of delivery or the date services were completed. The full text of a FAR provision or clause may be accessed electronically at www.acqnet.gov/far. The following provisions apply to this acquisition: FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors ? Commercial; and 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications ? Commercial Items. In accordance with FAR 52.212-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications ? Commercial Items, offerors must complete annual representations and certifications on-line at http://orca.bpn.gov. If paragraph (k) of the provision applies, a written submission is required. The following clauses apply to this acquisition: 52.204-7 Central Contractor Registration; 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions?Commercial Items; 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders?Commercial Items including subparagraphs: (1) 52.203-6, Restrictions on Subcontractor Sales to the Government, with Alternate I; (3) 52.219-4, Notice of Price Evaluation Preference for HUBZone Small Business Concerns (if the offeror elects to waive the preference, it shall so indicate in its? offer); (5) 52.219-6, Notice of Total Small Business Set-Aside; (7) 52.219-8, Utilization of Small Business Concerns; (14) 52.222-3, Convict Labor; (15) 52.222-19, Child Labor?Cooperation with Authorities and Remedies; (16) 52.222-21, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities; (17) 52.222-26, Equal Opportunity; (18) 52.222-35, Equal Opportunity for Special Disabled Veterans, Veterans of the Vietnam Era, and Other Eligible Veterans; (19) 52.222-36, Affirmative Action for Workers with Disabilities; (20) 52.222-37, Employment Reports on Special Disabled Veterans, Veterans of the Vietnam Era, and Other Eligible Veterans; (21) 52.222-39 Notification of Employee Rights Concerning Payment of Union Dues or Fees; (24) 52.225-3, Buy American Act?Free Trade Agreement?Israeli Trade Act; (26) 52.225-13 Restriction on Certain Foreign Purchases (E.O. 12722, 12724, 13059, 13067, 13121, and 13129; and (31) 52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer--Central Contractor Registration. Department of Commerce Agency-Level Protest Procedures Level above the Contracting Officer is also incorporated. It can be downloaded at www.nist.gov/admin/od/contract/agency.htm. All offerors shall submit the following: 1) An original and one copy of a quotation which addresses all Line Items; 2) Technical description and/or product literature which addresses all minimum specifications; and 3) Description of commercial warranty. All quotations shall be sent to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Acquisition Management Division, Attn: Carol A. Wood, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1640. All offerors shall ensure the RFQ number is visible on the outermost packaging. Submission must be received not later than 3:00 p.m. local time on January 25, 2007. FAX quotations shall not be accepted. E-mail quotes shall be accepted.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Ship to Address:, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, MD
- Zip Code: 20899
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 20899
- Record
- SN01208514-W 20070112/070110220325 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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