To:          T. King Liu, Associate Dean for Research

              M. Wu, Microlab Faculty Director

From:       K. Voros, Operations Manager

Subject:   2008 Year-End Report

Date:       23 January 2009

I.        INTRODUCTION

While Microlab operations continued in a steady state mode in 2008, many staff activities revolved around planning for the move to the new lab. Our goal is to keep operations running smoothly, on target financially, in anticipation for the eventual transfer to the new facility. Grand opening of the CITRIS Headquarters is scheduled for 27 February 2009; we do not have a date yet to access for preparatory work the empty space of the Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory.

This is the 22nd year-end report I am submitting.

II.      MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES

F a c i l i t i e s

Microlab

  • Bob Hamilton, Equipment and Facilities Manager, and Safety Officer of the Microlab, provides details on upgrades, installations, facilities maintenance and development in his report. Safety issues and HazCom improvements are also discussed.

Notable in 2008: A successful deployment and start up of the Crestec e-beam writer; new Picosun atomic layer deposition system installation; major reliability improvement on the Edwards sputterer and e-beam evaporator; software upgrade and reliability improvements on the heatpulse rapid thermal processing systems; upgrade of  the 6” resist coater control; pumps database enhancements with maintenance schedule and notification capability.

  • Process engineering activities continued in high gear throughout the year. Sia Parsa, Process Engineering Manager and his staff detail process support and development activities.

Notable in 2008:  Process characterization, manual writing, user training on the two new   tools, crestec e-beam writer and picosun ald; updating all manual chapters with dates older than 2006; completion of a major MEMS Exchange run, mask making and ETR services.

Baseline activities are an integral part of process engineering. The report on the latest 0.35 μm run came out in December 2008. See http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2008/EECS-2008-168.pdf     

  • Rosemary Spivey, Administrative Manager and her staff’s reports include discussion of our financial status, accounts and members administration, purchasing, and inventory management. Recharge rate proposals were submitted on time for both the Microlab and the Machine Shop and scrutinized throughout the year by the Campus Recharge Rate Committee.

Notable in 2008: The Microlab’s recharge budget passed the $3M mark, again in compliance for the 21st year in a row. During the past five years we managed this with only a cost-of-living increase in rates.

  • Todd Merport, Computer Operations Manager describes systems maintenance, operational improvements and upgrades. Our computers and lab control software were maintained at the highest levels of uptime and integrity.

Notable in 2008: Servers and client systems are of recent vintage, all equipped with security programs; major improvements in the pumps database.

In 2008 the Mercury project made excellent progress and it is ready for deployment in the Marvell Nanolab. Equipment control hardware for the new lab was purchased and tested with the Mercury interface.  The MercuryWeb includes all interactive programs, such as reports and forms, reservations and equipment qualifications, along with management tools restricted to staff.

The Marvell Nanolab website was established and activated in December 2008, http://nanolab.berkeley.edu/

New Laboratory

Construction of the new engineering building, CITRIS, including our new lab, the Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory is just about complete. Opening Celebration of the CITRIS Headquarters is scheduled for 27 February 2009. At this time we have no date for beneficial occupancy of the Marvell Nanolab.

We do not anticipate shutting down the Microlab for the move; however, there will be slow downs in selected areas. Planning is in progress. Details in Dr. Flounders’ report.

Machine Shop http://mshop-erso.berkeley.edu

The Machine Shop completed 387 jobs for 53 PIs in FY 2007/2008.  Financially the Shop has been struggling to maintain operations fully on recharge basis. Staff reduction by one principal laboratory mechanician by the end of 2007 helped move finances of the Shop towards a less precarious situation; however, by March 2008 the account was still out of compliance. We submitted a corrective action plan which was accepted by the Campus Recharge Committee and the Shop closed the FY within the allotted out of tolerance limit. During the first half of the current FY Shop finances are on schedule to meet the budget.

See Ben Lake’s report for details.

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.

Table 1 - Staff Organizational Chart

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, Principal Development Engineer, Operations Manager

1.     Equipment and Facilities (10 FTE)

Bob Hamilton, Principal Development Engineer, Manager

Joe Donnelly, Associate Development Engineer

David Lo, Associate Development Engineer

Jay Morford, Assistant Development Engineer

Danny Pestal, Assistant Development Engineer

Evan Stateler, Senior Development Engineer

Phill Guillory, Senior Development Engineer, Supervisor

Alan Briggs, Development Technician IV

Mike Linan, Associate Development Engineer, Supervisor

Brian McNeil, Development Technician V

2.     Process/Baseline (7 FTE)

Sia Parsa, Principal Development Engineer, Manager

Kim Chan, Assistant Development Engineer

Jimmy Chang, Senior Development Engineer

Marilyn Kushner, Junior Development Engineer

Laszlo Petho, Associate Specialist – Baseline

Attila Szabo, Associate Specialist – MEMS

4 student assistants, 0.5 FTE each

3.     Administration (4 FTE)

Rosemary Spivey, Administrative Analyst, Manager

Nancy Peshette, Administrative Assistant III (0.5)

2 student assistants, 0.5 FTE each

Susan Kellogg-Smith, Buyer II, Procurement Manager

Adrienne Ruff, Administrative Assistant III

4.     Computer Support (4 FTE)

Todd Merport, Programmer Analyst IV, Supervisor

Susan Calico, Programmer Analyst II

Madeleine Leullier, Computer Resources Specialist II (0.75)

Olek Prokurowski, Programmer Analyst III

Changrui Yin, Programmer Analyst III (0.5)

5.     Technology Management

Bill Flounders, Principal Development Engineer, Manager

Xiaofan Meng, Senior Development Engineer − Cryoelectronics

Matt Wasilik, Associate Development Engineer − BSAC

►   Machine Shop (4.5 FTE)

Ben Lake, Senior Superintendent

Bob Amaral, Development Technician V

Robert Connolly, Development Technician V

Joe Gavazza, Principal Laboratory Mechanician

Alan Peterson, Development Technician V (ML)

Nancy Peshette, Administrative Assistant III (0.5)

Table 2 - Operational Staff Groups

F i n a n c i a l   R e s o u r c e s

 

Recharge accounts under Microlab management continued to be closely monitored for budgetary requirements throughout the year. Rosemary Spivey's report shows details and financial analysis for each unit. (See Table 3 below.)

Unit

Income

Expenditures

Performance

No. of PIs Billed

Microlab

$3,016,506

$3,060,169

1.4 % [-]

98

Machine Shop

$361,626

$343,469

1.3 % [-]

  53

Table 3 - Recharge Accounts Summary

30 June 2008

Both units are financially stable and again closed the fiscal year within recharge operation specifications.       

III.   COMMUNICATIONS & CONTROL

Change in Directorship

At mid-year we were surprised by a sudden change in Microlab Faculty Directorship. Prof. Tsu-Jae King Liu, our Faculty Director since June 2000, was assigned the position of Assistant Dean for Research/ERSO Director, and Prof. Ming Wu took over as Microlab Faculty Director. We are fortunate and pleased that again one of our major PIs became the director, who cares for the well being of the lab as much as we do. We are looking forward to a long and successful cooperation.

Membership

Microlab monthly membership was over 300 this past year, same as in preceding years. Overall, we dealt with 491 members during FY 2007/2008. (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

2006/2007

2007/2008

345

315

326

331

315

345

317

325

45,413

39,288

43,455

40,823

40,394

48,201

45,696

48,021

39,383

36,738

37,676

34,692

38,798

44,992

45,699

47,156

Table 4 - Microlab Utilization

Berkeley Microlab Affiliates (BMLA)

Number of Industrial members, BMLA, in January 2009: 22

Document Control & Training

The Microlab’s operating manual consists of 1381 pages, compiled in 157 chapters, available on-line from the web portal of the Microlab, http://microlab.berkeley.edu/.

Outreach

During the Summer of 2008 we again had two students participating in our Summer Internship for High School Girls program. They worked under the guidance of Jimmy Chang, Senior  Development Engineer, and Daniel Queen, a graduate student labmember, who also worked part time for the Microlab during the Summer. We will continue the program this coming Summer, http://microlab.berkeley.edu/text/MLOutreach.html, for which we have selected two applicants from Bay Area high schools.

IV.    SUMMARY

The year of 2008 moved along smoothly in the Microlab. Steady state operations continued, with anticipation of the move to 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. Regrettably no funding is in place for the move.