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THIS IS A COMBINED SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE AND NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE Announcement Number: NIST-SS26-CHIPS-115 Subject: Notice of Intent to Noncompetitively Acquire Scanning Electron Microscope Computer Upgrade This notice is not a request for a quotation. A solicitation document will not be issued, and quotations will not be requested. This acquisition is being conducted under the authority of RFO 12.102(a). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 334516, Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing. NIST intends to award a non-competitive contract to Carl Zeiss Microscopy for a scanning electron microscope computer upgrade to regain functionality of NIST's Zeiss Supra SEM. 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. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division (MND) develops integrated microsystems by advancing the state of the art in nanofabrication, enabling the transfer of NIST measurement technologies to the industrial, academic, and government communities. The MND owns a Zeiss Supra scanning electron microscope that serves CHIPS Metrology projects GC6.01 – Universal Microscopy Standards and GC4.01 – Advancing Power Electronics with Defect Metrology. To meet mission-critical requirements, the MND needs to procure a new workstation to replace the failed workstation that controls the Zeiss Supra SEM. This acquisition will provide the Division and CHIPS Metrology with essential capabilities for calibration and measurement method development, assessment of nanofabrication processes, characterization of microscopy standards, and cathodoluminescence spectroscopy. The microscale acoustic resonators used in this project will operate in the range of 1 GHz to 1.8 GHz because this provide the necessary measurement bandwidth to observe ALD process dynamics. As a result, a lock-in amplifier that matches with the resonance frequencies of the sensors is needed. The pairing of the lock-in amplifier with our custom microwave acoustic resonators will provide unprecedented measurement clarity and time resolution, making the approach invaluable for future ALD process development. Fabrication of the microwave acoustic resonators will be completed within the second quarter of FY26. The lock-in amplifier must be purchased in FY26 to meet the milestone of demonstrating of our new measurement method by the end of FY26. The minimum requirements are outlined below. Line Item 0001: Description: Workstation for Z…

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