High-Field Electromagnet System for MRAM Metrology

BACKGROUND
This is a Sources Sought Notice (SSN) from industry to help determine the availability and capability of small business and other than small businesses that are capable of providing any or all of the products and services required by the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST is conducting market research to identify potential sources that can provide a High-Field Electromagnet System for MRAM Metrology that meets or exceeds all technical specifications, inclusive of delivery and installation support requirements identified in this notice. 

This notice is strictly to request information for market research purposes to help NIST determine the appropriate acquisition strategy for this requirement. This notice shall not be construed as a solicitation, an obligation, or commitment by NIST.

The semiconductor supply chain is global, specialized, and interconnected. To address R&D ecosystem gaps, NIST will conduct measurement science, or metrology, critical to the development of new materials, devices, packaging, and production methods in chip manufacturing by US manufacturers. This potential requirement is for CHIPS project GC7.05: Assured Sanitization of Ultrahigh Density Magnetic Memory and Storage Devices. MRAM is an emerging memory that is already taking the place of embedded flash at advanced technology nodes. This project requires determination of the assured erasure (sanitization) of MRAM devices.  The switching field probability distributions of MRAM devices will be measured to determine field values ensuring erasure of the entire distribution of devices. These values will inform NIST in the development of field-based sanitization protocols. The field may also be used to ensure the state of the device independent of electronic interface.

OVERVIEW
NIST has a potential requirement for a Contractor to provide a high-field electromagnet system, including a bipolar power supply system, to facilitate MRAM device metrology, meeting, or exceeding, the technical specifications below.  This type of measurement requires magnetic fields to be applied in a wafer probe, in a direction perpendicular to the wafer, to be swept from negative to positive values. NIST will employ these measurements on many devices over the course of hours and days; therefore, repeatability and thermal stability are critical.

The Contractor shall provide a High-Field Electromagnet System for MRAM Metrology that meets or exceeds all technical specifications identified below for Line Item 0001.

Minimum Specifications: 

Line Item 0001 (Required) 
Description: High-Field Electromagnet System for MRAM Metrology
Quantity: One (1)
A.    Technical Specifications:
        a.    Field Strength: Must be capable of producing 0.5 T fields at approximately 5 mm from the pole face.
        b.    Field Orientation: Capable of applying fields in the direction perpendicular to the wafer.
        c.    Power Supply: Must include a dedicated bipolar power supply to allow field sweeping from negative to positive values.
        d.    Physical Dimensions: The magnet must fit within a volume (Length x Width x Height) of 11.5 cm x 11.5 cm x 19 cm, due to laboratory space constraints. 
        e.    Operational Duty: Must be capable of continuous operation at 0.5 T.
        f.    Cooling: The system must include provisions for cooling to support continuous 0.5 T operation. Chiller/process chilled water will be supplied by NIST.
        g.    Control Interfaces: The field value shall be controllable by an external analog voltage AND additionally via standard computer interface (e.g., USB, GPIB, or Ethernet).

B.    Preferred technical specifications:
        a.    Method for measuring magnet temperature. This specification is desirable but is not required.

C.    Installation Support:
        a.    Installation and verification of the delivered product shall be performed by NIST. No installation is required by the Contractor. However, the contractor must be available by phone or video conference during a 2-hour installation period to provide support should questions arise while NIST is installing the system.
        b.    The Contractor shall deliver an installation manual, utility requirements, and schematics to NIST on or around delivery and before installation. 

WARRANTY
The Contractor shall provide a commercial warranty for the entire system and provide, at minimum, a one-year warranty for all new equipment and services. The warranty shall cover all parts, labor, and travel. The warranty shall commence upon successful completion of delivery, after inspection and acceptance have been completed. The warranty shall be in accordance with the terms specified in FAR 52.212-4.

ANTICIPATED DELIVERY, INSTALLATION, AND TRAINING REQUIREMENTS
Delivery of the High-Field Electromagnet System shall be F.O.B Destination and shall occur within 6 weeks After Receipt of an Order (ARO). Delivery shall be made to the NIST Shipping and Receiving address, located at 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001. Installation shall occur within 2 weeks after delivery of the High-Field Electromagnet System. No training is required by the Contractor. 

CYBERSECURITY PRIVACY REQUIREMENTS
NIST seeks a solution that provides security and privacy protection consistent with requirements defined by applicable federal laws, regulations, policies, and standards (e.g., the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), OMB Circular A-130, and FIPS Publication 200). The solution provider (including subcontractors) may meet these requirements through various means, including but not limited to FedRAMP authorization, current third-party assessments (e.g., SSAE, PCI), and/or responses to NIST special publication control set SP 800-171.
Minimally Acceptable Controls
•    System security plan describing physical, technical, and administrative controls implemented to protect systems and sensitive personally identifiable information (SPII).
•    IT management processes to establish and manage secure configuration baselines including routine patching for all operating systems and applications.
•    Access to SPII is restricted to those with a need to know. Personnel with access to SPII have background investigations performed (e.g. criminal, financial etc.), and are trained on secure handling of SPII.
•    Access Controls for SPII meet or exceed industry best practices for access and identification control including, but not limited to, connectivity to servers and databases, multi-factor authentication for remote accesses for administration, secure configurations for any devices accessing the system, and strong physical security for any place where the data is accessed.
•    The solution supports multifactor authentication for users and/or supports integration with customer federation services for Single-Sign capability.
•    Processes for scanning on a continual basis for vulnerabilities and proper configurations for all aspects of the system, as well as processes for timely mitigation of findings.
•    Auditing and Incident Response processes including customer notification of suspected or actual incidents and logging with sufficient information to perform forensics on any incident. Processes for notifying and providing appropriate mitigations, including but not limited to credit monitoring services, for subsidy applicants in the event of suspected or actual incidents.
•    SPII is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2 or better and encrypted at rest in all places the SPII is stored.  All encryption algorithms and modules are FIPS 140-2/140-3 validated.

The Contractor shall comply by providing NIST with documentation of minimally acceptable controls within 30 days of award. If unable to meet any of the requirements listed above, the solution provider may provide details of mitigations or alternative protections in place to ensure the appropriate handling and protection of SPII.
If the solution provider provides services to other Federal agencies, provide a general description of the security risk management approach and client point of contact.

INFORMATION REQUESTED FROM INDUSTRY SOURCES:
NIST invites industry sources to review this notice carefully and to familiarize themselves with this Source Sought Notice.  Thereafter, NIST encourages those sources to submit the following:

•    Company Summary:
1.    Notice ID and its Title for this posting
2.    Your company’s name, address, website address and Unique Entity Identifier (if the company has one)
3.    Company point of contact, their phone number, and their email address
4.    Your company’s size status as it relates to NAICS 334516 – Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing.  See table of business size standards at https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards for more information. 
5.    Indicate whether your company has an active registration for procurement purposes in sam.gov.

•    Place of Manufacture/Origin: Please identify whether the potential product is manufactured in whole or in part in the United States. If it is manufactured outside of the United States, in whole or in part, pleas identify the country of manufacture. 

•    Existing Contract Vehicles: Indicate whether your company has a GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract or other federal contract under which NIST would be authorized to place an order, and if so, provide a copy of that contract (including contract number, name and contact information for contracting officer, contract SOW, contract terms and conditions and contract prices).

The Government reserves the right to follow up on a one-on-one basis with respondents to request additional information or clarifications about information submitted.

THIS IS STRICTLY MARKET RESEARCH. NIST WILL NOT RESPOND TO QUESTIONS REGARDING THE RESULTS OF THIS MARKET RESEARCH. REQUESTS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL NOT BE PROVIDED

SUBMMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Interested parties shall submit responses to by the closing date of this notice to hunter.tjugum@nist.gov and to donald.collie@nist.gov. 

•    Microsoft Word (or PDF) document, and 11 or 12-point font.
•    Submission shall not exceed five (5) pages. Any cover page OR Standard Commercial Pricing Sections is not included in the total page count.
•    Respondents are requested to state their capabilities and expertise in clear and concise language.
•    Respondents are strongly encouraged to avoid use of excessive marketing and sales language.

Cover Page
Respondents shall include the following Business information on the Cover Page:

1.    Sources Sought Notice number, title, and date of issuance
2.    Unique Entity ID
3.    Company Name
4.    Company Address
5.    Company website address, 
6.    Company Point of Contact, Phone, and Email address
7.    Validation of business status under NAICS: 334516 – Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing. See table of business size standards at https://www.sba.gov/document/support-table-size-standards for more information. 
8.    Indicate whether your company has an active registration for procurement purposes in sam.gov.

This notice is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of NIST.

NIST does not intend to award a contract based on responses nor otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted. As a result of this notice, NIST may issue a Request for Quote (RFQ).

THERE IS NO SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. However, should such a requirement materialize, no basis for claims against NIST shall arise because of a response to this notice or NIST’s use of such information as either part of our evaluation

Confidentiality
Do not include proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information in response to this notice. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary information as it deems appropriate in establishing requirements for its upcoming acquisition.

DISCLAIMER
This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government 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. Information provided will be used to help NIST assess alternatives available for the potential requirement and may lead to the development of a solicitation. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received and other market research, NIST may publish a solicitation on SAM.gov or on GSA ebuy, depending on the acquisition strategy chosen by NIST. NIST will not consider proposals submitted directly in response to this notice for award. Responses received after the closing date for this notice may not be considered for market research purposes.