Corelated Manufacturing RFI

To: All Interested Parties

Sources Sought 

This is a Sources Sought Notice and should not be construed as a solicitation announcement.   

We are not requesting a proposal from your company and this notice will not result in a contract.  Request that you send your capability statement addressing the below requirements to:

UT-Battelle, LLC is the managing and operating contractor of the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).    
For additive manufacturing (AM) materials development research, multi-length scale correlative manufacturing and characterization is required to fully understand the relationship between the process-structure-properties. This is required to allow for a comprehensive understanding of these length scales in order to fully understand the performance of the final component and yield insight into an accurate understanding of the component’s lifetime.

The complication with AM technologies is that defect structure and microstructure can vary within an actual component depending on the geometry of the part, the processing parameters and scan strategy used to fabricate the part, and the specific material being processed. Therefore, detailed in-situ and ex-situ characterization of each AM component must be performed in which information is spatially tracked relative to the computer-generated intended geometry (CAD file).  

To enable project success, ORNL is looking to expand their capabilities in electron beam powder bed additive manufacturing and two- and three-dimensional correlative microscopy. The electron beam powder bed additive system will allow for correlated in-situ manufacturing processing of high temperature materials with samples being able to be directly corelated and translated from printer to microscope for microscopic structure investigation. This is to be achieved through supplied corelative software that cross-communicates between systems or through direct access to each of the systems application programming interfaces (API) to allow for the transfer of data between these systems that have similar and uniform data structure. The systems and their specifications required to achieve are listed below. Certain non-negotiable features as well as further stretch goals have been identified for the correlated manufacturing and characterization tool suite as well as requirements for access to the offers engineering team to support the cross-communication of these systems:

Equipment Specifications:

Scanning Electron Microscope 1 Specifications:
• The system must have an electron beam source: Schottky Field Emission Gun (FEG)
• The system must have a beam/pixel resolution: Minimum of 0.75 nm @ 20 kV and 1.5nm @ 1kV
• The system must have a minimum (photo) magnification range: 10x to 1,000,000x @ (128 mm x 96 mm photo size)
• The system must have an accelerating voltage range of: 0.01 to 30 kV
• The system must have beam current ranges at the following accelerating voltages: 1 pA to 300 nA at 30 kV and 1 pA to 100 nA at 5kV
• The system must be equipped with the following detectors: 
   o In-column upper electron (through-lens/in-lens) SE
   o In-column BSE
   o In-chamber SE
   o retractable BSE
   o retractable STEM
• The system must have the following software and automation capabilities and system access:
   o Live AI image filtering
   o Automated SEM montaging
   o Automated advanced multiple area imaging with variable focus, beam energy & working distances
   o Automatic beam alignment (focus/stigmator/brightness/contrast included)
   o In-chamber stage navigation system
   o Live 3D tomography using BSE
   o Multi and cross-instrument correlative sample capability either through existing software or through API access across the systems in this RFI
• The system must contain a quick specimen exchange chamber
• The system must be able to operate in HV mode
• The system must be able to operate in variable vacuum mode
• The system specimen stage must have the following minimum movements
   o Linear motion (70x50x35mm) (X,Y,Z)
   o Tilt: -5 to 70°
   o Rotation: 360°
• The system must be able to accommodate a maximum specimen size of: 150 mm diameter and 40 mm height
• System will have a footprint in X and Y of less than 9 square meters
• System will weigh less than 1000 kg

Microscope (FIB/SEM) 2 Specifications:
• The system must have an electron beam source: Schottky Field Emission Gun (FEG)
• The system must have an electron beam/pixel resolution (at coincidence): Minimum of 0.75 nm @ 15 kV and 1.5nm @ 1kV
• The system must have a minimum (photo) magnification range of: 10x to 1,000,000x @ (128 mm x 96 mm photo size)
• The system must have a minimum electron beam accelerating voltage range of: 0.01 to 30 kV
• The system must have a minimum electron beam current range of: 1 pA to 500 nA at a 30 kV accelerating voltage
• The system must be equipped with the following detectors: 
   o In-column upper electron (through-lens/in-lens) SE
   o In-column BSE 
   o In-chamber SE 
   o retractable BSE
   o retractable STEM detector
• The system must have a focused ion beam (FIB) source of liquid Gallium
• The system must have a FIB Beam/pixel resolution (at coincidence): Minimum of 3nm @ 30kV
• The system must have a minimum FIB (photo) magnification range: 50x to 300,000x @ (128 mm x 96 mm photo size)
• The system must have a minimum FIB Accelerating voltage range of: 0.5 to 30 kV 
• The system must have a minimum FIB Current range of: 1 pA to 100 nA @ 30 kV accelerating voltage
• The SEM/FIB system must have the following software capabilities and system access:
   o Automatic beam alignment (focus/stigmator/brightness/contrast included)
   o In-chamber stage navigation system 
   o Live 3D model of chamber to prevent specimen collision
   o Multi and cross-instrument correlative sample capability either through existing software or through API access across the systems in this RFI
• The system must have a gas Injection System (GIS) with sources of platinum and carbon
• The system must be compatible with an Oxford instruments Omni Probe 400 micromanipulator
• The system specimen stage must have the following minimum movements
   o Linear motion (125x125x35mm) (X,Y,Z)
   o Tilt: -40 to 90°
   o Rotation: 360 °
• System will have a footprint in X and Y of less than 9 square meters
• System will weigh less than 1000 kg

Scanning Electron Microscope 3 Specifications:
• The system must have an electron beam source: Schottky Field Emission Gun (FEG)
• The system must have a beam/pixel resolution: Minimum of 1.0 nm @ 20 kV and 3.5nm @ 1kV
• The system must have a minimum (photo) magnification range: 10x to 600,000x @ (128 mm x 96 mm photo size)
• The system must have an accelerating voltage range of: 0.5 to 30 kV
• The system must have beam current ranges at the following accelerating voltages: 10 pA to 300 nA at 30 kV
• The system must be equipped with the following detectors: 
   o In-column upper electron (through-lens/in-lens) SE
   o In-column BSE
   o In-chamber SE
   o retractable BSE
   o retractable STEM
• The system must have the following software and automation capabilities and system access:
   o Live AI image filtering
   o Automated SEM montaging
   o Automated advanced multiple area imaging with variable focus, beam energy & working distances
   o Automatic beam alignment (focus/stigmator/brightness/contrast included)
   o In-chamber stage navigation system
   o Live 3D tomography using BSE
   o Multi and cross-instrument correlative sample capability either through existing software or through API access across the systems in this RFI
• The system must contain a quick specimen exchange chamber
• The system must be able to operate in HV mode
• The system must be able to operate in variable vacuum mode
• The system specimen stage must have the following minimum movements
   o Linear motion (100x100x80mm) (X,Y,Z)
   o Tilt: -10 to 90°
   o Rotation: 360°
• The system must be able to accommodate a maximum specimen size of: 200 mm diameter and 70 mm height
• System will have a footprint in X and Y of less than 9 square meters
• System will weigh less than 1000 kg
• System must be able to accept third party EBSD and EDS
• Stretch Goal: 
   o System must be upgradeable to include a laser ablation system for 3D serial sectioning of AM metallic materials such as nickel and   molybdenum for a minimum area of 1x1mm (X,Y) and 0.5mm that is fully automated or has the ability to be automated through access to the system API and access to offers engineering team. System must offer the ability to handle cross-instrument correlative microscopy. 

Transmission Electron Microscope Specifications:
• Electron Source: Cold Field Emission Gun (CFEG)
• The system must be capable of both TEM and STEM imaging modes
• The system requires an accelerating voltage range of 80-200kV
• The system must meet the minimum resolution requirements of: 0.23nm (point-to-point), 0.10 nm (TEM lattice image), 0.15 nm (STEM-HAADF image)
• The system specimen stage must have the following minimum requirements:
   o Linear motion (+/-1x1x0.2) (X,Y,Z)
   o Double Tilt: -35 to 30° (x/y axis) 
   o Single Tilt: +/-80° (x-axis or y-axis)
   o Stage movement precision: picometer-level
• The system must have the following hardware:
   o Motorized Beam Stop
   o Bottom mounted digital Camera

       *Minimum number of effective pixels: 19 million pixels
       *Recording Modes: Image frame and video (stack frame)
       *Shutter Type: Global Shutter
   o EDS Detector System
       *Detector Type: Silicon Drift
       *Detection Area: 100mm2
• The TEM system must have the following software capabilities and system access:
   o Automatic gain/offset, focusing, and astigmatism adjustments
   o Multi and cross-instrument correlative sample capability either through existing software or through API access across the systems in this RFI
• The system must be upgradable to include an EELS system
• System will have a footprint in X and Y of less than 20 square meters, with a height no more than 3.5m
• System will weigh less than 1000 kg

Electron Beam Printer Specifications:
• The system must have an electron beam power source
• The system must have a beam accelerating voltage of at least 60kV
• The system must have a cathode source with a demonstrated life of at least 1,500 hours
• The system must have a beam power range of Variable up to 6 kW
• The system must have a circular build volume shape
• The system must have a minimum build volume size of 250mm diameter and 400mm tall
• The build volume must be modifiable to allow for smaller build volumes of 100mm diameter and 150mm tall
• The base pressure in the systems vacuum chamber must be at least 10-6 mbar or lower
• The base pressure in the systems electron gun must be at least 10-6 mbar or lower
• The system must contain a backscatter electron detector for in-situ process monitoring able to operate in both TOPO and COMPO modes
• The system must have the following software capabilities and system access:
   o Automatic correction of the electron beam for focus, astigmatism, and distortion
   o Multi and cross-instrument correlative data capability either through existing software or through API access across the systems in this RFI
   o The system will allow either through software or API beam control and tool paths to be open source and fully customizable via programming scripts
• System will have a footprint in X and Y of less than 15 square meters
• System will weigh less than 5000 kg
• System Power: 200V