signiMEMORANDUM

 

To:             Katalin Voros, Operations Manager

From:        Rosemary Spivey, Administrative Manager

Subject:     2007 Year-End Report

Date:         17 January 2008

 

At the close of the 2007 calendar year, the administrative unit under my direction comprised 3.77 FTE. This unit provided administrative support to the Microlab and Machine Shop in the areas of fiscal and budget management, account administration, staff management, procurement and inventory control. The following report summarizes Microlab activities supported by the administrative unit during 2007.

I.         FISCAL  MANAGEMENT

I prepared a fiscal year financial report detailing the budgetary activities of the Microlab during 2006/2007 and distributed it to Microlab Member Professors on 23 July 2007.

The report included the following highlights:

  • Microlab recharge operations ended the 2006/2007 fiscal year with a 1.2% negative balance. Collected recharge revenue of $2.88M fell short of expenditures by $34,710, which was added to the previous years’ negative carry-forward balance of $26,681. The total negative carry-forward balance was $61,391. This represented a deficit of 2.1% of the total 2006/2007 operating budget; thus, the Microlab was in compliance, for the 20th year in a row, with UCB policies and procedures for recharge operations, which allow recharge centers to operate within 8% of the total budget.
  • As a result of excellent equipment availability throughout fiscal year 2006/2007, equipment use hours increased. Accordingly, maintenance expenditures increased steeply, specifically for vacuum pumps. These are utilized in 72 of the 158 processing equipment on line.
  • A total of 502 lab members utilized the Microlab in fiscal year 2006/2007. The number of BMLA member companies was 22.

2007/2008 Microlab Budget

CATEGORY

YEARLY BUDGET

MONTHLY BUDGET

Salaries & Benefits

            $1,782,960.00

        $148,580.00

Supplies & Expenses

            $1,441,800.00

        $120,150.00

Deficit Recovery

                 $61,390.00

            $5,120.00

Income*

            $3,268,150.00

        $273,850.00

*Projected Overhead Income not included in Income totals.

Salaries & Benefits (S&B)

The Microlab operating fund supported 24.17 FTE career and student staff salaries and benefits totaling $1,530,953.79 in fiscal year 2006/2007. In addition, 8.85 FTE career Microlab staff salaries and benefits were supported from non-Microlab funds totaling $756,373.07. The FLCC grant (Professor Neureuther, head PI) provided support for 2.23 FTE of the total 8.85 FTE supported from non-Microlab funds. We ended the 06/07 fiscal year 11% under budget in this category, primarily due to FLCC’s generous support. Central ERSO continued to support 1.5 FTE administrative positions and 0.50 FTE of the Microlab Manager’s position during the 06/07 fiscal year. At the conclusion of the first half of the 07/08 fiscal year salaries and benefits are 4% under budget. Effective 10/1/07, non-represented staff received a merit increase of 3.5% – 4.2%. Represented staff from the Clerical Unit received a 4.5% increase effective 10/1/07, and represented staff from the Technical Unit received a 3.7% increase effective 10/1/07 and an additional ˝ step increase effective 1/1/08.

The following payroll changes occurred during 2007:

Effective Date

Name

Action

1/1/07

Connelly, Robert

Split position with Microlab and Machine Shop, 50/50.

1/05/07

Peshette, Nancy

On medical leave, 1/5 – 1/26/07; return to work at 50% time 1/26 – 2/17/07.

1/16/07

King Liu, Tsu-Jae

Support Microlab Faculty Director position 38.89% for Spring Semester 2007.

1/16/07

Queen, Daniel

Hired as Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) at 25% time, Spring 2007 Semester

2/05/07

Kovats, Antal

Hired as Dev. Tech V, 100% time limited appointment through 6/30/07.

2/06/07

McNeil, Brian

On medical leave, 2/6/07 – 5/7/07.

2/28/07

Linan, Michael

On medical leave, 2/28/07 – 4/16/07.

3/01/07

Kellogg-Smith, Susan

Mapped to Career Compass job standard Buyer II.

4/01/07

Peshette, Nancy

Increased percentage worked for the Microlab, from 30% to 40%.

5/01/07

Linan, Michael

Equity Increase.

5/23/07

Queen, Daniel

Increase GSR appointment to 50% time during summer.

6/01/07

Spivey, Rosemary

Reclassification to Sr. Administrative Analyst effective 6/1/07.

6/13/07

Bucher, Daniel

Resigned from Assistant Development Engr. position, (MEMS Exchange Engr.)

6/18/06

Carolyn Kooi

Emmeline Lan

Hired as high school summer interns, 6/18/07-8/2/07.

7/01/07

Briggs, Alan

Hired in Dev. Tech. IV pilot Internship, 7/16/07-12/14/07. Hired as permanent employee at Dev. Tech. IV classification, 12/16/07.

7/01/07

Connelly, Robert

Move to Machine Shop 100% time.

7/01/07

Kovats, Antal

Split appointment effective 7/1/07. 50% FTE, Asst. Dev. Engr (MEMS Exchange); 50% FTE, Dev. Tech. V.

7/01/07

Kellogg-Smith,

Susan

ERSO Central provides 50% support for FY 07/08, balance of 37.5% on Microlab funds.

7/01/07

Spivey, Rosemary

ERSO Central provides 100% support for FY 07/08.

7/01/07

Voros, Katalin

ERSO Central provides 40% support for FY 07/08, 40% balance on EECS funds.

11/01/07

Kellogg-Smith, Susan

Equity Increase.

11/15/07

Petho, Laszlo

Hired as Visiting Associate Specialist, (Baseline Engineer).

12/01/07

Szabo, Attila

Hired as Visiting Associate Specialist, (MEMS Exchange Engineer).

12/21/07

Kovats, Antal

Resigned from Asst. Dev. Engr. and Dev. Tech. V split appointment. Return to home country.

12/21/07

Pongracz, Anita

Resigned from Visiting Associate Specialist position, (Baseline Engineer). Returned to home country.

 

In early 2007, The University Office of Human Resources announced the launch of Career Compass, a Jobs Standard Initiative that would more closely align UC jobs with the market place, clarify career progression for each job, and clearly define classification levels. In the new system, job standards would include 18 fields, 110 job families and 600 job standards. In March 2007, I participated in a pilot program to “map” current non-represented purchasing jobs to the new Career Compass job standards within the Purchasing job family. Our Purchasing Manager’s position was mapped to the Buyer II professional job standard. Soon thereafter however, the timeline for mapping current job descriptions to the new structure was put on hold, and all reclassification requests were paused for the period 6/1/07 – 7/1/08. On 1/8/08, Vice Chancellor of Administration, Nathan Brostrom, sent an e-mail stating that following extensive redevelopment, review, and participation from the campus, supervisors and managers would begin mapping non-represented employees reporting to them to the new job structure effective 3/1/08.

Supplies & Expenses (S&E)

Microlab supplies and expenses (S&E) totaled $1,384,051.81 in fiscal year 2006/2007. Major S&E expenditures paid by the Microlab included general use liquid nitrogen, $172,032.86; chemicals, $148,752.79; parts and maintenance for misc. equipment such as heatpulse, randex, quintel, technics, $130,296.94; computer operations/CIS fees, $70,418.89 and quartzware, $40,271.12. In addition, a total of $182,186.35 was spent from Microlab operations, equipment reserve and overhead funds, on numerous vacuum, cryo, booster and dry pumps that required repair or rebuilding. These pumps are utilized in 72 of the 158 processing equipment on line. Since many systems need more than one pump to operate, 130 pumps are running in the Microlab at any given time. With spares and pumps out for repair, the pumps database includes 192 individual pumps, (69 different models). The most expensive pumps, both to purchase and to rebuild, are the dry pumps used in LPCVD and etching systems. To accommodate for the increasing costs of consumables such as liquid nitrogen and lithography chemicals, the S&E budget for fiscal year 06/07 increased slightly to $1,452,000. At mid-year S&E expenses are 3% under budget, resulting from equipment stability and conservative spending for spare parts.

Recharge income collected from BMLA membership fees and BMLA/sundry laboratory use overhead fees in fiscal year 2006/2007 continued to support the development of the new Microlab management information system (Mercury). As well, BMLA funds supported a portion of our Faculty Director’s salary and benefits. BMLA funds contributed $50,000.00 toward the initial payment of  $750K  for a > $2M Crestec Corp. E-beam Lithography System.. In fiscal year 2006/2007 the Microlab Equipment Reserve fund was charged $162,915.25 for new and replacement equipment including a Dell PowerEdge replacement for CAPE, Ultrasparc II, upgrade of GCAWS2, Semifab Air Temperature & Control System, Sopra Switch Box & IOP2 board and various dry, cryo and vacuum pumps.

Income

Recharge revenue generated in fiscal year 2006/2007 was $2,880,295.37, which was 9% below expectations. Recharge revenue generated from campus sources was 6% lower than the previous fiscal year; industrial member revenue declined 17% from the previous year, and comprised 21.8% of our total recharge revenue. At mid-year 07/08 $1,470,947.40 has been generated, which reflects an 11% shortfall of projection. Although we had a sluggish start to the fiscal year, lab membership has been steadily growing and is currently at 349 active members per month. December 2007 recharge income was at an all-time high and I am hopeful that we will meet the targeted income goal of $3.26M by fiscal year-end.

Microlab income is generated based on recharge rates. To compensate for the 2007 cost-of-living increase, Microlab recharge rates were adjusted accordingly. Laboratory and Equipment cut-off limits remain at $1200.00 and $1400.00 per month respectively.

Recharge Rates Effective 1 July 2007

Access Fee

$86.60

 

General Rate

$36.00/hour

$0.60/minute

Special Equipment Use Rate

CMP, CSSEM, GCA WS/PG, Plasma etchers; lam1-5, ptherm & tegal etchers, Tylan/Tystar furnaces,  STS, SEM

$33.00/hour

$0.55/minute

Exceptional Equipment Rate

ASML stepper, P-5000 cvd, Novelus M2i, Applied Materials Centura, Tystar19/20/SiGe LPCVD

$37.20/hour

$0.62/minute

Staff  Services

$68.40/hour

$1.14/minute

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

II.       BUDGET  &  ACCOUNT  MANAGEMENT

Financial Reports

As in past years, monthly and annual Financial Summaries for the Microlab were submitted. The reports provided budgetary analysis of account activity including detailed analysis of recharge specific project codes and flex fields. The reports were distributed to the Faculty Director, PIs, and managers of the Microlab.

Various reports, including the Microlab FY 07/08 Recharge Rate Proposal, CNRI MEMS Exchange Summary Report, Cyro Group Summary Report, Process Group ETR Summary Report, etc., were prepared as required.

Cory Hall Machine Shop

The 2007/2008 Recharge Rate Proposal for the EECS/ERSO Machine Shop, projects total annual revenues of $492,056. The hourly recharge rate increased to $69.50, which was again necessary to increase revenue for deficit recovery.

My staff continued to be responsible for purchasing and accounting functions of the Machine Shop’s operations. Nancy Peshette prepared monthly financial reports for the Machine Shop detailing expenditures, (S&B/S&E), income, work hour accounting and YTD pro forma hours provided to EECS. In addition, she provided various charts to the Sr. Superintendent to assist with further budgetary analysis.

For 11 months of 2007 the Machine Shop supported a Sr. Shop Superintendent, three mechanicians and an AAIII (.50 FTE).  After considerable analysis of Machine Shop current and projected operations, it was determined that one principal mechanician position had to be eliminated. On 9/25/07, the least senior Principal Laboratory Mechanician received notification that it was necessary for the Machine Shop to reduce staff in this category, and he would be on indefinite layoff status effective 12/10/07. As of December 2007, the Machine Shop is carrying an out-of-tolerance deficit balance. Salaries and Benefits savings, along with other deficit reducing measures are being implemented to reduce the current deficit.

According to Fiscal Year 2006/2007 figures a total of 47 PIs from the departments of EECS, Physics, ME, MSE, Chemistry, Nuclear Engineering, Biology, LBNL and UCSF supported the Machine Shop and 296 jobs were completed for customers. The Microlab was recharged $142,528.50 for 132 jobs completed, accounting for 38% of the Machine Shop’s total revenue. At the close of fiscal year 2006/2007, income generated was $380,866.00, while operating expenses were $398,065.37, resulting in a negative balance of $17,191.50 and total carry-forward deficit of $29,598.41. At mid-year 2006/2007, the Machine Shop is carrying a total deficit of $58,562.69.

Baseline Process Project

Total operating expenditures for the Baseline Project for 2007 were $102,216.02; $41,075.48 for laboratory fees, materials and implantation costs; and $61,140.54 for 1.10 staff FTEs. Baseline Report V., 0.35µm CMOS Process on Six-Inch Wafers, was published on 2/9/07.

Microlab Accounts

Throughout the 06/07 fiscal year 502 labmembers were funded by 99 principal investigators. The average number of active labmembers on a monthly basis was 317. The administrative staff requested 155 new Microlab computer accounts for members with active, guest, courtesy and staff accounts in 2007. Additionally, 51 “billing only” accounts were requested. I established and/or maintained Microlab accounts for these members, which included fund changes, split funding requests, fund transfers and reversals. On a monthly basis, Microlab supporters received a statement of lab charges incurred by their students and additional expenditure detail as requested by PIs.

External Accounts

Berkeley Microlab Affiliates (BMLA)

Laboratory income generated by BMLA/sundry sources totaled $566,853.58 in fiscal year 2006/2007, accounting for 21.8% of Microlab operating revenue. In addition to income generated from lab fees, BMLA members contributed to the Microlab through the annual membership fee. At the end of fiscal year 2006/2007 there were 22 companies participating in the program. I have sole responsibility for the financial management of this program, including invoicing, processing checks through University Relations/Cashier’s Office, donor acknowledgement letters, account administration and recordkeeping. As well, I ensured that each new industrial member read and signed the Microlab Memorandum of Cooperative Agreement and prepared or amended Business Contract Agreements between The Regents of the University of California and the industrial member company.

Engineering Test Requests (ETR)

Research endeavors conducted by other Universities in the Microlab continued in 2007.

The administrative staff created and maintained Microlab accounts for 41 non-UC university members this year. Microlab process staff performed services for outside universities this year including CalTech, Duke U., Georgetown U., Howard Hughes Med. Inst., Johns Hopkins U., JPL, Rutgers State U. of New Jersey, San Francisco State U. Simon Fraser U., Stanford U., U. of Maryland, U. of Michigan, U. of New Mexico, U. of North TX, U. of Texas Austin, U. of Wisconsin, Madison, Vanderbilt U., and Universitat zu Koln/Germany. As in past years, I worked closely with the process staff to ensure that all purchase orders were valid and charges were collected for work performed.  Within the UC system 19 accounts for Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, and San Francisco have been established and/or maintained.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)

I managed 20 LBNL contract agreements for Microlab use in 2007. I am responsible for reviewing, approving, billing and preparing “close-out” documentation for each contract in compliance with Department of Energy regulations. I worked with LBNL procurement and accounting personnel to guarantee accurate accounting of these contracts.

Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI)

The Microlab’s participation in the MEMS fabrication service to U.S. academic and industrial researchers continued this year. The DARPA funded award supported one Assistant Development Engineer at 50% FTE throughout 2007. A total of 46 process runs were completed during the 2007 calendar year, for which I invoiced CNRI $63,019.22. To provide the required detailed billing specified in the current CNRI contract, I set-up a billing account for each run and then charged for individual modules referencing the unique account name.

III.          PROCUREMENT  &  INVENTORY  MANAGEMENT

Purchasing/Inventory

Susan Kellogg-Smith provided comprehensive procurement and inventory management for the Microlab and backup service for Machine Shop during 2007. For detailed information on Microlab procurement and inventory see Susan’s report.

IV.     MANAGEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION

Supervision of Staff and Office Administration

 

2007 marks Susan Kellogg-Smith’s 18th year of service for the Microlab. During this time Susan developed a vast knowledge in the area of semiconductor industry commodities and is considered an expert in this area by her peers. As the Microlab’s Purchasing Manager, Susan continued to independently manage all procurement functions for the Microlab. She exercised a high level of discretion in making decisions, setting priorities, and unit policies. In fiscal year 2006/2007, Susan and Purchasing Assistant III, Adrienne Ruff, prepared an average of 210 purchase orders per month, with an average monthly expenditure of $143K, representing a 9% increase in dollar volume purchased over the same period last year. At the ERSO Quarterly Meeting in March, Susan received a SPOT Award for “results orientation” for working above and beyond the requirements of her position to assist Machine Shop operations while their administrative assistant was on leave. As previously stated, in March 2007 I received a request to participate in a pilot program to map current non-represented purchasing jobs to the new Career Compass job standards within the Purchasing job family. After careful review of all duties and responsibilities within Susan’s domain, the position that most closely met our requirements was that of Buyer II. This is a professional category position in the financial services field. Effective 11/1/07, an equity increase was approved to appropriately compensate Susan for the high level of skills, knowledge and experience she brings to her position. Of further note, Susan’s coordination of the highly complex Crestec/E-Beam Lithography System purchase must be recognized. The purchase of this system involved 15 separate funding sources from four departments, required agency approvals, sole source justification and coordination of contract terms and conditions, as well as communications with overseas freight forwarder and customs broker. Susan performed all duties with a high standard of excellence and I am grateful to her for another outstanding year of service.

Nancy Peshette provided excellent customer service to all Machine Shop patrons in 2007. One of Nancy’s many qualities is her ability to handle all situations that arise with good spirits. Fiscal year 2006/2007 was financially challenging for the Machine Shop and Nancy took great care to scrutinize every order request to ensure the best possible use of resources. She saved shop funds whenever possible, while strictly adhering to the policies and guidelines of University procurement. In early 2007 I received a note from Central Purchasing Buyer, Roberta Spalding, thanking Nancy for her excellent documentation which included a bid summary with alternate quotes and an evaluation summary for the purchase of the Henry Servin & Sons milling machine. The Machine Shop operation benefited greatly from Nancy’s expertise in machine shop commodities and skillful handling of their purchasing needs last year. On 4/1/07, Nancy increased her work hours for the Microlab from 30% to 40% time. Nancy did a terrific job of handling all aspects of Microlab recharge billing. She is now accustomed to the intricacies of the Microlab’s complex monthly billing process and the increase in time has been beneficial in allowing Nancy to complete all tasks in a timely manner. Nancy’s contributions to the Machine Shop and Microlab were significant in 2007. She handled the recharge billing for both operations with great accuracy and care.

Personnel Support

I provided personnel related support for career staff and associated researchers of the Microlab and Machine Shop a total of 33 during 2007. This involved new employee hires, performance evaluations, reclassification requests, equity increase requests, limited waiver of recruitment requests, two Worker’s Compensation medical leave cases, and a layoff. Because of the proposed implementation of Career Compass (previously discussed), all reclassification requests not received prior to 5/1/07 were put on hold. In certain cases, this impacted our ability to classify and compensate staff appropriately. When warranted, we attempted to overcome this obstacle by requesting an equity increase. Although this was not the preferred solution, we believed this action may have assisted with retention of quality staff while Career Compass issues were being resolved. I am happy to report that effective 3/1/08, the Career Compass mapping process will begin in earnest.

II.            CONCLUSION

I was extremely pleased to be one of the lucky few to receive a reclassification in 2007. The support of Microlab management over the past 21 years has been phenomenal. I will do my utmost to deserve their continued support by providing exceptional administrative service to Microlab operations.