[BNC-all] BNC e-news for the week of December 21st

[Anthrop, Heather L]

All User Meeting
When: January 20th and 21th   7:00pm to 8:00pm
Where: Lily Hall 1-105

All facility users must plan to attend either session on the 20th or 21th or your Cleanroom and Lab Access will be suspended. You must be on time and have either your Birck or Purdue ID with you for attendance purposes.

Director Announcement

Dear Birck Users and Research Community,

With the extended break this year between the Christmas and New Year's holidays the university will be closed for 11 days in a row, beginning Thursday, December 24th and concluding Monday morning, January 4th.  This represents a new challenge for us to maintain some limited research capability while the university is officially closed with no staff members present.

Therefore the Birck Nanotechnology Center will implement the following policy for the duration of this period:

1.    No toxic, flammable, or hazardous gases will be available.  This includes hydrogen, methane, silane, dichlorosilane, ammonia, nitric oxide, chlorine, KrF.  These gases will be shut off at the source and no processes using these gases will be allowed.

2.    Cleanroom and laboratory operations will still be available as long as they don't use any hazardous gases.

3.    Fume hoods will be open for use but please make sure someone else is nearby if you're going to work alone in the hood.

4.    Stocked materials should be especially conserved by all users as no deliveries to the university will occur during this period.

5.    Cleanroom users should continue to re-use their cleanroom gowns and other garments as much as possible since the shipping of used garments to our laundering supplier will be unavailable during this time.

6.    No staff will be working normal hours but some may intermittently stop in for brief walk-throughs and checks.

Please also note that custodial services will be suspended during this time period as well.  Thank you for your support of this extended period of time for staff, faculty, and students to enjoy time off with family and to refresh.  Also, thank you in advance for your professionalism in maintaining our great facility through the duration of this holiday and university recess period.


Ali Shakouri
Dimitri Peroulis

E-Beam Lithography

A user inquired about upgrading our e-beam lithography system and providing more e-beam resists.  At this time we are exploring options for Birck's entire e-beam lithography strategy into the future.  We're in discussions with system providers and we're looking at several options for e-beam services, equipment, etc.  This will evolve over several more months.


University Winter Recess
Purdue University will be CLOSED December 24th through January 3rd, please plan accordingly.

Upper Atrium Display Hours

A user requested that the upper atrium displays be powered up longer into the evening so that late-night cleanroom information is still visible.  This is a change we just recently completed.  The displays will now stay active until 12:00 midnight.

UPS SHUT DOWN (Uninterruptable Power Supply)

On 7 January 2016 Purdue Physical Facilities will be shutting down the center's Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS) power to the front half of the building. The outage is needed to add electrical capacity to the UPS distribution system. As result of this UPS interruption there is a direct impact on the building control systems resulting in shutting down HVAC and chemical exhaust systems for both east and west laboratory wings. This requires us to shut down laboratory activities that involve exhausted hoods, vacuum systems, and/or toxic gases - no chemical work will be allowed during this period. However, work that involves taking standard electrical measurements may be carried out in the LABS provided that fluctuating air temperature and humidity do not affect the readings.

The UPS interruption should take from 4 to 8 hours to complete - barring any unforeseen issues.

Normal power in all the laboratories will not be affected and will available during the time the UPS power is shutdown. The cleanroom UPS power will not be affected as well.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding during these important upgrade.

BNC Management

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