This is a firm-fixed-price purchase order awarded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a civilian agency, to Bluefors Inc., a foreign-owned for-profit company, for a SD250 dilution refrigerator system with 40+GHz bandwidth wiring option. The contract has a ceiling value of $385,392.75 and a completion date of May 10, 2024. No set-aside designation was used.
The original solicitation sought information on vendors that could provide a sub-kelvin cryostat with optional upgrades, such as a dilution refrigerator, to support NIST's quantum computing and nanotechnology research programs. Bluefors, as a leading provider of high-quality cryogenic equipment, was able to meet NIST's specialized requirements. This contract award builds on Bluefors' prior experience delivering similar dilution refrigerators and cryogenic systems to NIST and other federal agencies supporting advanced research in quantum information science.