Nanofabrication Facility Fees
The CHM Nanofabrication Laboratories, managed by the MassNanoTech Institute, provide a range of
material fabrication services to support nanoscale scientific experiments, operating in a clean room
located in B-117 Conte and other smaller clean room environments in the Conte building.
ACCESS FEE
For UMass users the Access Fee will be charged as a fiscal year (7/1 to 6/31) annual lump-sum fee of
$1200. Other academic groups outside the university will be charged $1500 per year. For non- academic
users, the Access Fee will be charged as an annual fee of $2500. The academic access fee includes the
monthly user fee for one user. We ask that the minimum rotation period for a user be at least three
months.
MONTHLY USER FEE
For UMass users the Monthly User Fee will be $60, for other academic users it will be $75, and for
industrial users it will be $95. Mandatory training on safety and general clean room practices will be
provided for all users. Individuals who have completed basic training will be “certified” to work in the
lab, and their identification will be loaded onto the lab’s card access system and to the online reservation
system. This fee will be used to defray lab costs for consumables such as gowning supplies, solvents and
chemicals, photolithograhic supplies, and process gases . Additional training on specific equipment or
processes can be requested if and when the users need it and that training is also covered by this fee.
EQUIPMENT USAGE FEES
The facility is organized to provide access to specific lithographic, deposition, and other fabrication
processes performed in separate chambers within the lab and on separate instruments and/or bench
environments. The Equipment Usage Fee is an hourly charge related to the higher associated costs of
running process equipment which is available but may not be needed by all users. These costs are
incurred at the option of the user. There are currently seven billable processes within the lab: reactive ion
etching, PECVD thin film growth, metalization (ebeam evaporator, sputtering), electron beam
lithography, and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) and the fee for these services is $40/hr for campus and
other academic users and $65/hr for industrial users. These fees will be charged process-by-process to the
research group/company based on the lab’s online equipment reservation system as documentation for
actual time on machines. Users will be billed for reserved time unless a cancellation is made at least one
half hour in advance of the reservation time. UV and DUV photolithography exposure tool usage is
included in the monthly user fee, as is metrology tool usage and wet chemistry bench access. Some of
these processes may still require reservations through our web based calendar system to avoid usage time
conflicts. Deposition of precious metals is at the rate of $50/hr (gold, platinum, palladium).
SPECIAL MATERIALS AND PROCESSES
In addition to the lab’s Equipment Usage Fee, the lab may charge extra for services such as supplying
wafers or other materials or preparing photolithographic mask designs.
PRECIOUS METAL SURCHARGE
The lab may assess a surcharge for precious metals such as gold that exceed a certain basic allowance for
typical lab work .
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
The lab will charge $40/hr for campus and other academic users and $65/hr for industrial users for
process work by the Lab Manager or other professional lab technicians employed by the Institute.
Training for equipment operations does not incur this fee. Fees are summarized on the following page.
Access Fees:
Campus User
Other Academic Institution
Industry
$1,200/annual
$1,500/annual
$2,500/annual
Monthly User Fees:
(charged to 2nd and subsequent listed users under a user paying the annual access fee)
Campus User
$60
Other Academic Institution
$75
Industry
$95
Equipment Usage Fees:
Campus Users and Other Academic Institutions
Industry Users
$40/hour
$65/hour
Technical Assistance Fees:
Campus Users and Other Academic Institutions
Industry Users
$40/hour
$65/hour
Special Materials and Processes Fee
$50/process