Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) Controller

Contracting Office Address

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),

Acquisition Management Division,

100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 1640,

Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640

This is a Sources Sought Notice ONLY.  Requests for copies of a solicitation will not receive a response. 

This Notice is for planning purposes only and is not a Request for Proposal or Request for Quotation or an obligation on the part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for conducting a follow-on acquisition.  NIST does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this Notice or otherwise pay for the information requested.  No entitlement or payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by NIST will arise as a result of submission of responses to this Notice and NIST use of such information.  NIST recognizes that proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary data and present it as an addendum to the non-restricted/non-proprietary information.  In the absence of such identification, NIST will assume to have unlimited rights to all technical data in the information paper.

NO SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS EXIST AT THIS TIME.

Minimum Requirement:

NIST is seeking information on contractors who can provide the following:

The Contractor shall provide a one Field-programmable Gate Array (FPGA) Controller meeting the following requirements:

• Function generator with input and output from DC to 500 MHz
• Output voltage of at least +-5 V
• Native PID controller with minimum 4 channels, 16-bit DAC resolution, and programmable PID parameters
• Native Pound-Drever-Hall type locking ability
• Minimum of four (4) BNC or SMA type ports for both input and output
• Allow for external 10 MHz reference signal in and out
• Contain integrated Spectrum Analyzer and Phasemeter for signal analysis
• Minimum of four simultaneously operating digital instruments
• Graphical User Interface (GUI) for control of all specified functions
• Support for LabVIEW programmability

Interested parties shall describe the capabilities of the system described above.  NIST anticipates issuing a Request for Quotation in the fourth quarter of 2025 and awarding a contract within the same period.

NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large and small businesses. The small business size standard associated with the NAICS code for this effort, 334515 – Instrument Manufacturing for Measuring and Testing Electricity and Electrical Signals is 750 employees.  Please include your company’s size classification and socio-economic status in any response to this notice. 

After results of this market research are obtained and analyzed, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract.  Companies that can provide such services are requested to email a written response describing their abilities to Harry.Brubaker@nist.gov no later than the response date for this sources sought notice.

The following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice:

1. Name, Address, Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number, CAGE code, and point of contact information of your company.
2. Any information on the company’s small business certifications, if applicable.
3. Description of your company’s capabilities as they relate to the item described in this notice.
4. A description of your company’s previous experience providing the item described in this notice.
5. Indication of whether the item described in this notice are currently offered via your company’s GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts, Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), or other existing Government-wide contract vehicles; and, if so, the contract number(s) for those vehicles.
6. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in finalizing its market research.
7. Place of Manufacture: Is more than 55% of item manufactured domestically, if not where is it manufactured?

Responses are limited to a total of twelve (12) pages. The responses must be in MS Word format.  Pages shall be 8½-inch x 11-inch, using Times New Roman 11 Point Font.  Each page shall have adequate margins on each side (at least one inch) of the page. Header/footer information (which does not include any information to be analyzed) may be included in the 1" margin space.