Probe Station Positioners and Wafer Probes

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)Acquisition Management Division, Boulder, COSources Sought for Commercial Item Purchase - Probe Station Positioners and Wafer ProbesThe National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL) enables science and industry by providing essential measurement methods, instrumentation, and standards to support all phases of communications technology development, from fundamental characterizations, discovery to production. The Radio Frequency Technology (RFT) Division (672) of the Communications Technology Laboratory is developing a THz-bandwidth synthesizer. To test the components of the synthesizer, the RFT division requires new probe station positioners and wafer probes. The acquisition of new probe station positioners and wafer probes will support research in CTL and will be used to support both NIST and other-agency priorities through collaboration.SpecificationsThe Contractor shall provide

positioners and wafer probes that meet or exceed the following requirements. All equipment must be new. Used or remanufactured equipment will not be considered for award.Positioner requirements:1. One set of North, South, East, and West positioners that are compatible with Cascade Microtech probe station model Summit 11,000 including top hat.2. The East and West positioners for the Cascade Microtech probe station model Summit 11,000 shall be compatible with large-area millimeter-wave frequency-extender heads.3. One set of North, South, East, and West positioners that are compatible with Cascade Microtech probe station model Summit 10,000.4. For each probe station, all four positioners shall be mountable at the same time without mechanical interference between positioners.5. All positioners must bolt down onto the probe station.6. All hardware required for mounting positioners on the probe station shall be included.Wafer probe requirements:7. Microwave wafer probes shall produce scrub marks that are less than 10 µm in width.8. Microwave wafer probes shall employ lithographic thin-film construction to reduce unwanted couplings to nearby devices and transmission modes.9. Optical wafer probes must be compatible with Cascade Microtech probe station model Summit 11,000 including top hat.This announcement is not a Request for Proposals (RFP) and does not commit the Government to award a contract now or in the future. No solicitation is available at this time. The purpose of this synopsis is to identify small businesses with the requisite qualifications to meet the requirements of the item stated herein. After results of this market research are obtained and analyzed and compared with NIST's minimum requirement (see Technical Specifications above), NIST may conduct a small business set-aside competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract. If at least two qualified small businesses are identified during this market research stage, then this acquisition will be solicited as a small business set aside. NIST is seeking responses from all responsible businesses, including small business sources (SB, SDB, WOSB, HUBZone, SDVOSB and VOSB). This requirement is assigned a NAICS code of 334515, (Instrument Manufacturing for Measuring and Testing Electricity and Electrical Signals), size standard 750.The specific purpose of this Sources Sought Announcement is to determine if there are small businesses, within the parameters identified above, that can provide the product identified.Interested small business organizations that believe they can meet the requirement should submit electronic copies of their capability statement. Please limit responses to three (3) pages or less. Responses should include the following information:1. Name of company that will provide product.2. Name of company that will manufacture the product.3. Spec sheets and examples of products that meet the specifications.4. Typical lead time to deliver the product after receipt of order.5. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in developing our minimum specifications and finalizing our market research.Any proprietary information should be clearly marked. The written capability statement should be received by the Contract Specialist no later than 2:00 pm MST Friday, August 31, 2018. The capability statement shall identify the business status of the organization.Only electronic statements will be accepted. Faxes will not be accepted. Send emails and any inquiries to Michael Fredericks, Contracting Officer, at michael.fredericks@nist.gov.Place of Contract Performance:Contractor's facility