Sources Sought Notice for a Close Fixture for Suss Wafer Bonder

NIST-SS26-10 

6640 / 334516  

Primary POC: Liz Timberlake (Elizabeth.timberlake@nist.gov)  

Title:  Close Fixture for Suss Wafer Bonder 

BACKGROUND 

***THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE*** 

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) seeks to acquire a universal SiC closed fixture for SUSS Gen2 Wafer Bonder.  The SUSS wafer bonder provides a unique function of enabling atomic bonding of two substrates by applying high pressure, high heat or high electric current. This specialty tool currently is not able to support most of bonding processes due to the breakage of its original universal SiC closed fixture. It is essential to replace this fixture in order to enable all functions and support various sizes of samples. Wafer bonding has become a popular and important process among photonic device innovation, semiconductor packaging, quantum device research and new material development.  

NIST has a need for a universal SiC closed fixture that meets or exceeds the following draft minimum specifications: 

The Contractor shall provide one (1) universal SiC closed fixture that meet the following minimum specifications: 

All material shall be new; rebuilt system components will not be considered. 

This fixture shall be able to transfer and support bonding process for substrates in various shapes and sizes ranged from 10 mm to at least 150 mm. 

This fixture shall come with proper bonding plates for the following types of bonds: thermocompression, eutectic, adhesion, anodic and fusion bonds.  

The plate at the center of universal closed fixture shall be made of SiC with the flatness level compatible with Suss wafer bonder operation and is able to resist 20 kN force applied by Suss wafer bonder. 

The fixture shall include three clamping arms to secure the positions of 100 mm wafer stack.    

The entire fixture, including clamping arms, shall be able to withstand processing temperature up to 550 ◦C, and chamber overpressure at least 2 bar and vacuum 5.0 x 10E-5 mbar or lower.   

The installation, setup, and acceptance will take place at the NIST CNST NanoFab cleanroom in Gaithersburg, MD. 

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 at the bottom of this notice as soon as possible, and preferably before the closing date and time of this notice. 

• 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). 

• Details about what your company is capable of providing that meets or exceeds NIST’s minimum requirements. 

• Whether your company is an authorized reseller of the product or service being cited and evidence of such authorization. 

• Identify any aspects of the description of the requirements in the BACKGROUND section above that could be viewed as unduly restrictive or create unnecessary barriers that adversely affect your firm’s ability to fully participate in a procurement for such services and explain why.  Please offer suggestions for how the requirements could be organized or structured to encourage the participation of small businesses. 

• For the NAICS code  

• 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.  

• If your firm has existing Federal Supply Schedule contract(s) or other contracts for products or services against which the Department may be able to place orders, identify the contract number(s) and other relevant information. 

• Describe your firm’s experience (as a prime, subcontractor, or consultant) providing the products or services described in Background section. 

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

• Please let us know if you would like to engage to get a better understanding of the requirement or need additional information about the Government’s requirement for the products or services described in the Background section.  

QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS NOTICE 

Questions regarding this notice may be submitted via email to the Primary Point of Contact and the Secondary Point of Contact listed in this notice. Questions should be submitted so that they are received by 12:00pm Eastern Time on July 2,2026.  Questions will be anonymized and answered via sources sought notice amendment following the question submission deadline. 

IMPORTANT NOTES 

The information received in response to this notice will be reviewed and considered so that the NIST may appropriately solicit for its requirements in the near future.   

This notice should not be construed as a commitment by the NIST to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract.   

This notice is not a request for a quotation. Responses will not be considered as proposals or quotations. 

No award will be made as a result of this notice.   

NIST is not responsible for any costs incurred by the respondents to this notice. 

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

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