Sources Sought NIST-SS26-CHIPS-17.docx

NIST-SS26-CHIPS-17

Title: Sources Sought Notice for 16 MP EUV Vacuum Flanged Camera EUV Ptychographic Reflectometry

Department of Commerce Advanced Acquisition Planning (AAP) Entry Number: N/A

BACKGROUND

The semiconductor supply chain is global, specialized, and interconnected. Chipmakers do business with thousands of individual suppliers that provide the highly complex materials and tools used to produce semiconductors. To address the lack of full visibility into the semiconductors markets supply chain and R&D ecosystem gaps NIST will conduct the measurement science, or metrology, critical to the development of new materials, packaging, and production methods in chip manufacturing. As part of this effort, NIST has a program to develop new methods to non-destructively measure and characterize the structure of complex nanoscopic devices. This approach is based on applying an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) high-harmonic generation (HHG) light source to combine reflectometry with spatial imaging and atomic core level spectroscopy. In order to collect the scattered EUV light from the sample needed for imaging, a large area CCD camera sensitive to EUV with sufficient dynamic range, pixel density and noise characteristic is required. Both operation at room temperature (RT) and at – 80 C will be used to achieve high-throughput and high resolution/sensitivity, respectively. As a result, minimum performance metrics must be met at both temperatures must be met.

NIST seeks to procure large area 16 MP vacuum flange mounted CCD camera with a high quantum efficiency, low noise and high-dynamic range in the EUV and soft-x-ray portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The area of active CCD and pixel spacing (density) set the ultimate spatial resolution that can be achieved with ptychography

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking information from sources that may be capable of providing a solution that will achieve the specifications described below:

Description: 16 MP EUV camera and peripherals A. Technical Specifications

General Specifications:

1. The camera must be a flange-mounted camera compatible with high-vacuum or better ( < 10-8 Torr).

2. The camera must be mounted to a DN160 CF (8 inch ConFlat) vacuum flange, with through holes (unthreaded).

3. The communication interface must be USB or ethernet

4. Software drivers must be provided to communicate with the camera using LabVIEW.

5. All required peripherals such as cables, software and power supplies must be included.

6. Must include a complete software package that allows for full operation of and data acquisition with the camera.

7. Must have an output (either TTL or high-voltage) to control an external shutter between exposures.

8. Custom, unproven products will not be considered. Delivery of at least 3 identical cameras to other customers must be demonstrated.

Sensor Specifications:

1. The sensor must be a back-illuminated charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor and exposed on the vacuum side of the flange.

2. The sensor must have a quantum efficiency greater than 60% for light for photon energies between 30 eV and 90 eV.

3. The camera must have at least three (3) ADC readout rates: one 500 kHz or less (slow rate), one nominally at 1 MHz, one between 1 MHz and 5 MHz (fast rate).

4. The camera frame rate must exceed 0.5 frames per second at full ROI with 1x1 binning (aka unbinned), 4-port readout, the fast readout rate, and a vertical shift rate between 40usec/row and 50usec/row.

5. The camera framerate must exceed 8 frames per second at full ROI with 16x16 binning, 4-port readout, the fast readout rate, and a vertical shift rate between 40usec/row and 50usec/row.

6. The camera framerate must exceed 3.9 frames per second when configured to read two ROIs that are 100 x 100 pixels (width x height) placed at opposite corners of the sensor, with 1x1 binning (aka unbinned), 1-port readout, the fast readout rate, and a vertical shift rate between 40usec/row and 50usec/row.

7. The pixels on the sensor must have an active area full well depth of at least 150,000 electrons.

8. The output node must have a full well depth at least 300,000 electrons.

9. The sensor must have pixels with a width and height between 14 microns and 16 microns with a 100% fill factor.

10. The sensor must have a number of active pixels in a minimum of 4000 x 4000 array (16 MegaPixel)

11. The sensor must be able to read out a software-configurable number of “virtual pixels,” sometimes referred to as “overscan region/rows/columns,” that are insensitive to any light present and accurately represent the readout and amplifier electronics over all modes of operation. The number of overscan rows/columns must be configurable from 0 to at least 200.

12. The dimensions of the sensor active area must meet or exceed 61 mm x 61 mm.

13. The camera must be reconfigurable during normal operation between vertical shift speeds ranging from <50 us to >150 us.

14. The sensor must have a readout noise of 4 electrons rms or less when using the slow readout rate (< 500 kHz).

15. The sensor must have a readout noise under 10 electrons rms when using the fast readout rate (>= 1 MHz).

16. The sensor must have an integrated thermoelectric cooler capable of cooling the sensor to below -80 C.

17. Must have a dark current below 0.006 electrons/pixel/sec at -55 C, below 1e-4 electrons/pixel/sec at -90C, and below 20 electrons/pixel/sec at room temperature (+25 C). Vendor is required to provide raw data/images recorded at both room temperature and -90 C sufficient for NIST to verify performance.

18. Frame-to-frame background variation at room temperature (RT) must be below the following metric: Record at least 100 frames at room temperature with full ROI, 1x1 binning, an exposure time between 3 and 7 seconds, and a readout rate of 1MHz. Compute the difference between consecutive frames, forming “difference images.” Compute the root-mean-square of each difference image, forming a 500x1 vector. The standard deviation divided by the mean (std/mean) of that vector must be below 1%. In other words, the standard deviation divided by the mean (std/mean) of the root-mean-square (RMS) differences between consecutive pairs of a series of dark background images must be below 1 % at RT for exposure times of 3-7 sec with a readout rate of 1 MHz. We require the vendor to provide a series of 100 consecutive images taken from an identical camera of the RT background under the above conditions for NIST to verify this performance metric. NIST will perform the analysis and calculation of the raw data provided. This metric will also need to be met with 500 frames during the factory acceptance testing.

19. The ADC must have a bit depth of at least 18 bits

20. Must be able to switch between 1-port, 2-port and 4-port readout modes.

21. The region of interest must be able to be a rectangle with corners located anywhere on the sensor when using 1x1 binning and 1-port readout.

22. The sensor must be able to be configured using the camera software to read out multiple, smaller regions of interest each frame instead of reading out the full chip or a larger, single region of interest.

23. The sensor must be able to perform hardware-scale binning.

24. The system must be able to operate with both air cooling (down to -60 C) and water cooling (down to – 90 C).

25. The camera must have both “full-frame” mode (in which the pixels are all exposed as a single frame and read out together) and “kinetics” mode (in which a few rows are designated as those to be exposed and the remainder of the sensor is configured to act as storage for those rows, thereby enabling a single frame readout of the camera to contain multiple exposures that can be captured at a much higher, “burst” framerate).

26. The camera operation and software must support using 1-port, 2-port, and 4-port readout in both full-frame and kinetics readout modes.

27. In Kinetics Mode, the user must be able to set the kinetics window height from 1 to at least 1024 rows.

28. In Kinetics Mode, the user must be able to set the storage shift rate to at least two different rates: one < 50 us/row and one > 150 us/row.

29. In addition to any other trigger modes supported by the camera, the camera must support a trigger mode (most relevant to kinetics mode) that triggers one shift per trigger.

30. The camera must be able to operate with exposure times spanning at least 1 ms to 20 minutes.

31. The camera must support at least two analog gain settings (aka low noise and high capacity).

Other specifications:

1. The sensor itself must protrude from the plane of the flange by 1.5 to 2.0 inches.

2. Shall include PC compatible (Windows 11) software to run and operate the camera and acquire images.

HOW TO RESPOND TO THIS NOTICE

In responding to this notice, please DO NOT PROVIDE PROPRIETARY INFORMATION. Please include only the following information, readable in either Microsoft Word 365, Microsoft Excel 365, or .pdf format, in the response: Submit the response by email to the Primary Point of Contact and, if specified, to the Secondary Point of Contact listed in this notice as soon as possible, and preferably before the closing date and time of this notice. Please note that to be considered for award under any official solicitation, the entity must be registered and “active” in SAM at the time of solicitation response.

· Provide the complete name of your company, address, name of contact for follow-up questions, their email, their phone number and, if your company has an active registration in https://sam.gov, your company’s Unique Entity ID (UEI).

· Identify the equipment that your company sells that can meet the objectives addressed in the BACKGROUND section of this notice. For each product recommended to meet the Government’s requirement, provide the following:

· Manufacturer name

· Model number

· Technical specifications

· If your company is not the manufacturer, provide information on your company’s status as an authorized reseller of the product(s)

· Describe performance capabilities of the product(s) your company recommends to meet the Government’s requirements. Additionally, if there are other features or functions that you believe would assist NIST in meeting its objectives described above, please discuss in your response.

· Discuss whether the equipment that your company sells and which you describe in your response to this notice may be customized to specifications and indicate any limits to customization.

· Identify any aspects of the NIST market research notice, including instructions, and draft minimum specifications in the BACKGROUND section you cannot meet and state why. Please offer suggestions for how the market research notice and draft minimum specifications could be made more competitive.

· State whether the proposed equipment is manufactured in the United States and, if not, state the name of the country where the equipment is manufactured.

· Identify any plans/possibilities for changes in manufacturing location of the aforementioned equipment and provide relevant details, including timeline.

· For the NAICS code listed in this notice:

· Indicate whether your company is (a) a small business or (b) other than small business. See the Table of Small Business Size Standards and the associated .pdf download file for small business size standards and additional information.

· If you believe the NAICS code listed in this notice is not the best NAICS code for the type of product addressed in this notice, identify an alternative NAICS code that you believe would be more appropriate for the planned procurement.

· Describe services that are available with the purchase of the aforementioned equipment from your company such as installation, training, and equipment maintenance.

· Describe standard terms and conditions of sale offered by your company for the recommended equipment such as: delivery time after your company accepts the order; FOB shipping terms; manufacturer warranty (including details regarding nature and duration); if available, description(s) of available extended warranty; equipment setup and test; operator and service instruction manual(s); cleanup after installation; and if applicable, other offered services. Provide a copy of manufacturer standard terms and conditions that typically relate to the sale of the specified equipment, if available.

· State whether your company offers facility renovation services related to installation of the recommended equipment at its delivery destination, if required per the NIST-identified minimum specifications, and provide description of said services. Indicate if your company performs the facility renovation services or typically subcontracts the work to another company. Indicate if your company would be interested in inspecting the intended installation site during the market research phase.

· State published price, discount, or rebate arrangements for recommended equipment and/or provide link to access company’s published prices for equipment and services.

· If the recommended equipment and related services are available for purchase on any existing Federal Supply Schedule contract(s) or other contracts against which NIST may be able to place orders, identify the contract number(s) and other relevant information.

· Identify any customers in the public or private sectors to which you provided the recommended or similar equipment. Include customer(s) information: company name, phone number, point of contact, email address.

· Provide any other information that you believe would be valuable for NIST to know as part of its market research for this requirement.

· State if you require NIST to provide additional information to improve your understanding of the government’s requirement and/or would like to meet with NIST representatives to discuss the requirement and the capabilities of the identified equipment.

QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS NOTICE

Questions regarding this notice may be submitted via email to the Primary Point of Contact Junee Johnson junee.johnson@nist.gov listed in this notice. Questions should be submitted so that they are received 5 days prior to the response date. If the Contracting Officer determines that providing a written amendment to this notice to document question(s) received would benefit other potential respondents, the questions would be anonymized, and a written response to such question(s) would be provided via an amendment to this notice.

IMPORTANT NOTES

This notice is for market research purposes and should not be construed as a commitment by NIST to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. There is no solicitation available at this time.

This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response.

NIST reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate.

Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s capability.

Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

After a review of the responses received, a synopsis and solicitation may be published on GSA’s eBuy or SAM.gov. However, responses to this notice will not be considered an adequate response to any such solicitation(s).

Thank you for taking the time to submit a response to this request.