RFI AA-2024-08.pdf

LBNL Request for Information No. AA-2024-08 Page 1

September 27, 2024

Subject: Request for Information (RFI) No. AA-2024-08 Response Due Date: October 8, 2024

Introduction The University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) is conducting market research to identify potential sources that possess the expertise, capabilities, and experience necessary to provide flexure systems and vacuum tank sets.

Background The Advanced Light Source Upgrade (ALS-U) is an upgrade project to the LBNL ALS. The ALS is a 1.9 GeV storage ring operating at 500 mA of beam current. It is optimized to produce intense beams of soft X-rays, which offer spectroscopic contrast, nanometer-scale resolution, and broad temporal sensitivity. The ALS facility includes an accelerator complex and photon delivery system that is capable of providing the foundations for an upgrade that will achieve world-leading soft x-ray coherent flux. The existing ALS provides a ready-made foundation, including conventional facilities and also includes extensive beamlines (up to 40 simultaneously operating beamlines) and instrumentation, an experimental hall, computing resources, ancillary laboratories, offices, and related infrastructure that will be heavily utilized in an upgrade scenario.

The ALS will be upgraded with an MBA lattice design that will provide a soft x-ray source that is orders of magnitudes brighter — an up to 100-1000 times increase in brightness — and will provide a significantly higher fraction of coherent light in the soft x-ray region than is currently available at ALS.

Use Case The ALS-U project requires a two degree of freedom mirror positioning systems that can rotate optics through 4 mrad of range at 50 nrad steps with 30 nrad-rms (>10 Hz) stability to place an x-ray beam on target at an endstation. A flexure system has been developed to achieve this which includes a monolithic titanium flexure, state-of-the-art piezo-friction actuators, heaters, mounting hardware, support components and cryocooling capabilities. The flexure system must operate at UHV, inside a vacuum chamber which is itself connected to upstream and downstream vacuum sections containing additional optics and light-conditioning-devices. These flexure system/vacuum tank pairs are critical to the success of the ALS-U project.

Scope LBNL is conducting market research to identify potential sources with the capability to supply flexure systems/vacuum tank sets that can meet the following requirements:

1. Rotate a single crystal silicon optic through ±2 mrad of motion with 50 nrad steps via a monolithic flexure and support structure

2. The monolithic flexure must be constructed of Ti 662 with an improved yield strength of ≥1150 MPa

3. The silicon optic must be cryogenically cooled

4. Vibrational stability must be ≤30 nrad-rms, >10 Hz at the optic

5. The actuators must be maintained between 0 - 100°C with heaters capable of controlling the system temperature to ±1 mK

LBNL Request for Information No. AA-2024-08 Page 2

6. The vacuum tank must fit within the space constraints dictated by their installation locations on their respective beamlines and be capable of maintaining vacuum levels at UHV, equivalent to 1e-9 Torr

7. The mirror system must simultaneously fit within and be mechanically decoupled from the vacuum tank

Prospective Sources must also demonstrate the following skill set, equipment facilities requirements and present examples showing delivery of similar projects.

Skill Set and Experience Requirements

• Fabrication o Welding o Brazing

• Machining o EDM o Polishing o Grinding o Milling

• Clean room assembly

• Electromechanical design

• Precision metrology

Equipment and Facilities Requirements

• EDM machine with travel that can accommodate workpieces 5.5” x 6.00” x 15.625” and wire size of 0.004”

• Class 100 (ISO 5) clean room

• Residual Gas Analyzer (RGA) and component baking capabilities

• Accelerometer and interferometer sensors for vibration and nano scale motion capture/analysis

• Survey and alignment equipment (Faro arm or equivalent)

• CMM capable of measuring features as small as 0.01 mm

Examples of Similar Projects Show at least three documented examples of similar work with customer contacts.

NAICS Code and Size Standard The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code for this RFI is 332999 (All Other Miscellaneous Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing). The corresponding small business size standard for this is 750 employees.

LBNL Request for Information No. AA-2024-08 Page 3

Instructions Respondents who can demonstrate a proven record of flexure systems per the identified scope should email the LBNL Procurement Representative(s) Arielle Anoop at AAnoop@lbl.gov and Martha Grausz at MGrausz@lbl.gov with the requested information and any published product literature. Responses must be submitted by email no later than 3:00 PM PST on Tuesday, October 8, 2024.

Request for Information Only This RFI is for informational and planning purposes only. This is not a request for quote or proposal. It does not constitute a solicitation and shall not be construed as a commitment by the University. Responses in any form are not offers and no subcontract will be awarded as a result of this announcement. No inquiries regarding a bid package or solicitation will be answered, because there is no bid package or solicitation available. Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is strictly voluntary.

In order to protect the procurement integrity of any future procurement that may arise from this RFI, information regarding the technical point of contact will not be given and no appointments for presentations will be made. No funds are available to pay for preparation of responses to this announcement, and no reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this RFI or any follow-up information requests related to this RFI. Responding to this RFI does not provide any advantage or disadvantage to potential offerors if LBNL chooses to issue a formal solicitation at a later date.

This Request for Information is governed by procurement policies and procedures established under the University's Prime Contract with the U.S. Government, represented by the Department of Energy ("DOE"), for management and operation of LBNL.

Proprietary Information Because information received in response to this RFI may be used to structure future programs and may be made available to the public, respondents must not include any information in their responses that might be considered business sensitive, proprietary, or otherwise confidential. Responses must be submitted with the understanding that their contents may be publicly disclosed and, in the event of a public disclosure, LBNL will not notify respondents or provide any opportunity to revise or redact submitted information.

(End of RFI document) mailto:AAnoop@lbl.gov mailto:MGrausz@lbl.gov