[labnetwork] Metered chemical dispensing?

Tue Jan 4 12:09:49 EST 2022

Hello all,

Happy New Year, and many thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions.

To summarise, there were largely three classes of suggestions to deal with
this issue (tracking chemical use, and encouraging chemical conservation,
for cleanroom users).  In escalating order of effort to implement:

   1. *Policy-based approaches:*  Tighten up SOPs to include permissible
   chemical volumes, identify users who are using unnecessarily large amounts
   of chemicals, and re-educate/warn/discipline/charge them if the
   behaviour continues.  Update SOPs/policies as new legitimate cases emerge.
   2. *Manual logging of chemical use:  *Have users track their chemical
   consumption by logging the volume or weight of chemical used per tool
   session, whether in a physical logbook or via electronic means (e.g.,
   incorporated into lab management software).  This would both capture the
   actual chemical usage, allowing it to be charged back to the user, if
   desired, as well as encourage users to limit their chemical consumption,
   since knowing that they are being tracked should make them conscious of
   their own wastage.
   3. *Automated chemical metering:*  Integrate some method of estimating
   actual chemical use (e.g., MFC voltage for gas flow, pulse counters for ALD
   precursors or liquid flow control valves) with one's lab management
   software, such that the entire process is automated.  Significant effort is
   likely required from both equipment engineering and software/computer
   engineering teams.

Thank-you again for the discussion and your experiences.

Cheers,

 – Aaron

Aaron Hryciw, PhD, PEng

Fabrication Group Manager

University of Alberta - nanoFAB

W1-060 ECERF Building

9107 - 116 Street

Edmonton, Alberta

Canada T6G 2V4 Ph: 780-940-7938
www.nanofab.ualberta.ca

On Wed, Dec 22, 2021 at 3:39 AM Owain Clark <odc1n08 at soton.ac.uk> wrote:

> Another vote that unless you have the spare resources to dedicate to
> implementing and maintaining a non-trivial technical solution your most
> efficient first pass solution would likely be to tighten up on SOPs, and
> identify the users that are using unusual quantities of chemicals – find
> out why and then try to improve/substitute the process in question or
> re-educate them in correct use as needed.
>
>
>
> We only charge for gold use in evaporators (per g, crucible weighed
> before/after) and e-beam lith. chemicals issued to users (ZEP/E-spacer by
> ml issued). Other expensive consumables are purchased privately per
> research group. The method is quite old school, users fill in a log book as
> needed, a spreadsheet is summarised, and finance make the transactions
> between project codes once per month.
>
>
>
> Other than that charges for common consumables
> (IPA/acetone/NMP/caustics/gases etc) are averaged into the yearly rate
> setting process and so far that seems to work fine.
>
>
>
> Regards, Owain
>
>
>
> *From:* labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> *On Behalf Of *James
> Mitchell
> *Sent:* 21 December 2021 21:50
> *To:* Aaron Hryciw <ahryciw at ualberta.ca>
> *Cc:* Fab Network <labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>
> *Subject:* Re: [labnetwork] Metered chemical dispensing?
>
>
>
> *CAUTION:* This e-mail originated outside the University of Southampton.
>
> Why not charge by process the user is doing. Standardized processes would
> include how much chemical would be used in a SOP. If a user abuses the
> process limits they would pay a surcharge for the extra chemical they used.
> If the excessive chemical usage continues the user would no longer be
> welcomed.
>
>
>
> Jim
>
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 21, 2021, 4:14 PM Aaron Hryciw <ahryciw at ualberta.ca> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> In our open-access cleanroom, we provide common chemicals "free of
> charge", in the sense that there is no additional charge to use them apart
> from the tool time (e.g., hourly rate for wet deck login).  This includes
> such chemicals as acetone, IPA, photoresist developers, standard metal wet
> etchants, KOH, etc.; the cost of supplying the chemical is (at least in
> principle) wrapped up into the tool rate.  I believe that this is a fairly
> standard approach among cleanrooms in academic settings.
>
>
>
> A shortcoming of this approach is that high-volume chemical users are
> being charged the same as low-volume chemical users; there is also no
> (financial) incentive for users to limit their chemical usage to just the
> volume they need.  We are therefore looking into ways in which we can
> capture the actual volume of chemicals used by each user, at least for some
> high-value and/or high-volume chemicals, such that billing for
> chemical usage can be applied more fairly.  As global supply chain issues
> have increased the cost of chemicals, this is becoming even more important.
>
>
>
> Ideally, the method of capturing usage should be largely automated (e.g.,
> not just a physical chemical use logbook at each wet deck), such that it
> does not take a lot of staff bandwidth to administrate, and should not rely
> on the honour system only (e.g., logging usage of a material in our lab
> management software), to ensure compliance.
>
>
>
> One approach we have been considering is having some kind of metered
> chemical dispensing.  For instance, the piranha wet deck would be plumbed
> with dispensers (e.g., chemical-compatible metering pumps) for sulfuric
> acid and hydrogen peroxide, perhaps drawing from large drums of the stock
> chemicals housed remotely (e.g., in a subfab or service chase).  A
> qualified user would login to the dispenser (via our lab
> management software), dispense the required volumes of the chemicals,
> logout, and the volume used would be tracked and automatically logged to
> their account.
>
>
>
> I expect that such a scheme is not as simple as it seems, and that there
> are probably a host of engineering, software, and other logistical problems
> that would need to be solved to implement this safely and effectively, at
> least if a turnkey solution for this does not already exist.  Has anyone
> implemented anything like this in their own cleanroom?  Or is this a
> horribly over-engineered solution to a relatively minor problem?  I'd be
> very interested in hearing how others have dealt with the problem of
> charging users fairly for chemical usage.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
>  – Aaron
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Aaron Hryciw, PhD, PEng
>
> Fabrication Group Manager
>
> University of Alberta - nanoFAB
>
> W1-060 ECERF Building
>
> 9107 - 116 Street
>
> Edmonton, Alberta
>
> Canada T6G 2V4 Ph: 780-940-7938
>
> www.nanofab.ualberta.ca
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