[BNC-all] REMINDER: Winter Recess Announcement

[Turner, Jaime J]

REMINDER

Sent on behalf of the Birck Leadership Team.......

Dear Birck Research Community,

We have received a lot of great input from faculty, students, and staff regarding how we can support some level of research through the winter recess break.  In past years we continued to keep the facility open but for limited non-hazardous work.

We certainly want to support continued use of our facility and this year has a different set of circumstances due to COVID and the extended down time of 16 days (Dec. 18, 3:30pm until Jan. 4th, 8am).  So taking all of these inputs and considerations into account we have developed a 'hybrid' plan to continue to support research.

The below table details our approach for 2020 but in summary we are doing the following:

  1.  All labs and cleanroom will be open.
  2.  The toxic gases of Cl2 and BCl3 will still be available in our etch tools.  We have heard from several groups that these etches are on critical paths of various research groups. Toxic gas detection for these gases will be on.
  3.  All other hazardous gases will be turned off, and detection will be off as well.
  4.  HF, BOE, and TMAH chemical processing will be allowed as long as a buddy is present.
  5.  Precursors for ALD systems will be available.
  6.  No shipping or receiving is being done at any building on campus.
  7.  The custodians will not be working so restrooms will not be maintained, and sanitation of touch surfaces will not be done.
     *   We encourage users to keep the facility clean and be extra vigilant about the hygiene and COVID risks.
  8.  A few engineering and building staff have graciously agreed to help for major issues but availability will be very limited and could be impacted due to COVID restrictions.
     *   Faculty and senior researchers are encouraged to be more proactive (e.g. occasional walk throughs checking the labs where there is ongoing research). Email Birck management if you notice anything.

Since there will be limited staff support during this winter recess the research groups are strongly encouraged to accomplish as much processing as possible before gases are turned off on Dec. 18.

See the following for more detailed information (this is up on the BNC Wiki):

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