From:
Katalin Voros, Operations Manager
Subject: 2006
Year-End Report
Date: 23
January 2007
Microlab
operations continued on a steady course in 2006. By fiscal closing in the
middle of the year we made up the deficit accumulated during the 6” upgrade and
closed FY 2005/06 in balance. The numbers are presented in the Financial
Resources section.
Planning
for the new Microlab as part of the CITRIS project continued; construction
resumed in middle of 2006 and it is progressing on schedule, with a beneficial
occupancy date, Fall 2008, as target.
In
August 2006, we welcomed back Professor Tsu-Jae King as the Microlab’s Faculty
Director. While she was on industrial leave, 2004-2006, Professor Nathan Cheung
acted as Interim Faculty Director with great success. Both transitions were
smooth and reassuring that our faculty support remains strong.
I
have completed my 20th year as Microlab Operations Manager; this is
the 20th year-end report I am submitting.
F a c i l i t i e s
Equipment and facilities problem reports were attended satisfactorily throughout the year, in a timely manner. Problem reports were updated/cleared on critical equipment in most cases next day. Microlab staff is keenly aware that equipment up-time is a critical metric of our operations; it is the main factor in providing income to cover operational expenses.
Sia Parsa, Process
Engineering Manager and his staff detail process support and development
activities.
In 2006 the Mercury project moved at a somewhat improved
rate. Our new PAIII, Eniko Seen, redesigned the user interface, for a more
advanced look-and-feel than what we had before. Mid-year we hired Olek
Proskurowski, PA III, to enhance overall progress, to work on the database and
server side, and also to act as back up to Todd in Unix administration.
Construction
of the new engineering building, CITRIS, including our new lab, resumed in 2006
and continues at a rapid rate. Bill Flounders’ report details the difficult
value engineering phase; however, it looks like the new lab will become
reality.
We were
saddened at the end of the year by the illness of our visionary Dean, EECS
Professor Richard Newton, who passed away on 2 January 2007. He was 55. Dean
Newton was the driving force behind the CITRIS project and a great supporter of
the new lab. Among his last acts he was able to conclude negotiations for
naming the building as the Sutardja-Dai Hall and the new lab in it, the Marvell
Nanofabrication Laboratory.
I could not be more pleased
with the name of the new laboratory. Pantas Sutardja (PhD ’88), as an
undergraduate, was my project mate when I worked on my MS degree in the current
lab. His brother, Sehat was a graduate student at the same time, and a good
friend; I attended Sehat’s wedding with Weili Dai when they both just finished
their studies. Together the two brothers and their wives co-founded the
extremely successful Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. We will be happy to call our
new lab the marvelous Marvell Lab.
Machine Shop
The Machine Shop completed
290 jobs for 42 PIs in FY 2005/2006. The Shop has been successful in broadening
its customer base and can maintain operations fully on recharge basis. By the end
of 2006 the increase in the number of job requests warranted the addition of a
0.5 FTE. An up-to-date website, which lists capabilities, contact information,
job request forms and general information such as photographs of completed
jobs, gives customers an easy way to make contact. http://mshop-erso.berkeley.edu (See Ben Lake’s report.)
We were all very pleased
that Ben Lake, Machine Shop Sr. Superintendent received the prestigious Will Zeilinger Staff
Excellence Award 2006. This award is presented annually to a staff member of
the EECS Department or the Engineering Research Support Organization (ERSO) who
exemplifies a spirit of service cheerfully given for the general good .
For Ben – a well deserved award, indeed.
S t a f f
Microlab
staff groups are organized along functional lines as described below. The
Machine Shop operates independently, under the Microlab Operations Manager (see
Table 1 - Staff
Organizational Chart, Effective 2 January 2007.)
The
Microlab has been successful in retaining and developing staff well tuned to
the laboratory’s needs. Cross training, back-ups and multiple responsibilities
in all positions ensure that lab operations have broad coverage and problems
are attended on a timely manner (Table 2.).
|
Microlab Operations (25 FTE) Katalin Voros, Operations Manager (7 direct
reports) |
|
1.
Equipment and
Facilities (9 FTE) Bob
Hamilton, Manager (7 direct reports) 4
development engineers and 1 technician Phill
Guillory, Supervisor - 1 technician and student assistants Mike Linan, Supervisor - 1
technician |
|
2.
Process/Baseline (7 FTE) Sia Parsa, Manager 3 development engineers,
1 research specialist and 4 student assistants |
|
3.
Administration (4 FTE) Rosemary Spivey, Manager - 2 student assistants, 1
Administrative Assistant III Susan Kellogg-Smith,
Procurement Manager - 1 purchasing assistant |
|
4.
Computer Support
(3.5 FTE) Todd
Merport, Supervisor 3 Programmer/Analysts |
|
5. Technology
Management: Bill Flounders |
|
►
Development staff
employed by research groups: 2 FTE, 2 student assistants |
|
►
Machine Shop (5 FTE) |
Table 2 - Operational Staff Groups
F i n a n c i a l R e s o u r c e s
|
Unit |
Income |
Expenditures |
Performance |
No. of PIs Billed |
|
$ 2,985,061 |
$2,946,320 |
1 % [+] |
101 |
|
|
Machine Shop |
$
353,339 |
$ 335,393 |
5 % [+] |
42 |
30 June 2006
Both
units are financially stable and again closed
the fiscal year within recharge operation specifications.
Membership
Microlab
monthly membership was over 300 this past year, same as in preceding years. Overall,
we dealt with 533 members during FY 2005/06 (see Table 4 below).
|
Fiscal Year |
Membership/Month |
Lab Use-Hrs |
Sp. Equip. Use-Hrs. |
|
2000/2001 2001/2002 2002/2003 2003/2004 2004/2005 2005/2006 |
345 315 326 331 315 345 |
45,413 39,288 43,455 40,823 40,394 48201 |
39,383 36,738 37,676 34,692 38,798 44992 |
Table 4 -
Microlab Utilization
Berkeley
Microlab Affiliates (BMLA)
Industrial
membership, BMLA is currently numbering 22.
Document
Control & Training
The Microlab’s operating manual consists of 1342 pages, compiled in 159 chapters,
available on-line from the web portal of the Microlab,
http://microlab.berkeley.edu/.
We expend considerable effort to keep documentation up-to-date,
because we expect lab members to use the on-line manual (and hard copy) as the
first step in finding operational and process information. The oldest date on
equipment operating manuals is 2003; this year we will update those with dates
of 2004. In addition, 35 equipment have written test requirements for
qualifications, which we also maintain and update regularly.
The task of writing new manuals, appending, updating
existing ones with the latest information, is shared by staff and expert users
of the tools, with process staff carrying most of the burden. Madeleine
Leullier, Computer Resources Specialist, has the assignment of document
control, i.e. editing and installation of both on-line and hard-copy manuals
and written tests.
Outreach
During the
Summer of 2006 we again had two students participating in our Summer Internship
for High School Girls program. They worked under the guidance of Daniel Queen,
a graduate student labmember, who also worked part time during the Summer for
the Microlab. We will continue the program this coming Summer, http://microlab.berkeley.edu/text/MLOutreach.html,
for which we are currently interviewing candidates from Bay Area high schools.
The year
of 2006 moved along smoothly in the Microlab. Steady state operations
continued, along with anticipation of the realization of the new lab. Support
from our PIs was strong throughout the
year, which meant that we were able to end the fiscal year on target and did
not have to raise fees. We are looking forward to our new lab to become
reality.