Machinery for the heat treatment of materials

Tender description

The University of Birmingham invites tenders for supply of a micro plasma treatment station. The workstation will be used to facilitate/support the take-up of high impact micro plasma processing technologies by the SMEs in West Midlands. In particular, it will be used to develop new applications with the technology provider and carry out feasibility studies and pilot projects to address the specific requirements of local SMEs. Therefore, it will be required as part of the project to build strong partnerships with the technology provider and define a joint co-funded R&D programme for the benefits of local businesses. This project is funded by the European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) and the procurement is dependent on the final funding agreement. Overall budget for this item is up to 70 000 GBP excluding VAT. To be delivered by: April-May 2019. The University of Birmingham invites tenders for supply of a micro plasma treatment station. The workstation will be used to facilitate/support the take-up of high impact micro plasma processing technologies by the SMEs in West Midlands. In particular, it will be used to develop new applications with the technology provider and carry out feasibility studies and pilot projects to address the specific requirements of local SMEs. Therefore, it will be required as part of the project to build strong partnerships with the technology provider and define a joint co-funded R&D programme for the benefits of local businesses. General characteristics A micro plasma treatment station that can be used for a range of non-contact, mask-less and selective plasma surface treatments, including surface pattering, printing, etching, activation, functionalisation, etc., for both conductive and non-conductive substrates at low temperatures and at atmospheric pressures. Specification 1) A power supply generates the voltage needed for the different micro plasma modules of the micro plasma treatment station. The required high voltage for the generation of the plasma is in a range of 4 to 8 kVpp ac @ a frequency of ~70 kHz; 2) A micro plasma control unit for setting and regulating voltage and communicating with the plasma head assembly, as well as the safety functionality for switching off the high voltage in the case the safety switch is pressed; 3) A XYZ motion platform for 3 dimensional motions of a plasma head assembly and an electrode table to hold the substrate workpiece of at least A4-size for the micro plasma surface treatment; 4) A micro plasma head assembly that is the mechanical and electronics interface between the micro plasma head and the XYZ motion platform. It can drive the plasma head in an accurate way, based on the signals obtained from the micro plasma control unit. At the bottom side a gas-flow nozzle should be attached to provide air or nitrogen gas and extract gases from the discharge region; 5) A PC-based controller with graphical user interface software for the selection of graphic files (preferred in jpg, png or bmp format), control of the motion of plasma nozzles and the establishment of the process parameters. This will enable digital selective plasma treatment and plasma surface patterning in particular directly from an electronic image for efficient process development and customised treatment; 6) The micro plasma treatment station should be able to produce high resolution surface patterns with high repeatability and digit accuracy. For air plasma treatment, the line width should not be larger than 150 and 250 microns on silicon wafer and polymeric materials, respectively; 7) A plasma head with multiple nozzles (>20) is needed to ensure digit plasma treatment including printing, etching and patterning with high efficiency and high repeatability; 8) A gas flow nozzle with dielectric spacer insert parts for micro plasma treatment of conductive substrates; 9) The micro plasma treatment station should be sufficiently flexible to reconfigure with add-on optional modules to deposite coatings via plasma enhanced CVD and ALD; 10) A fiducial camera system for aligning the plasma position to a marked position on the substrates; 11) Well defined and agreed workflow with time line from the purchase order through factory acceptance tests to the site acceptance tests and training. Optional component technologies 1) A micro plasma viewing camera system with LAN industrial camera and optics to observe the plasma during the plasma process; 2) Gas handling modules for the supply and control of additional gases. This project is being advertised in OJEU and is below the EU threshold spend. The time-scale which applies to OJEU will not apply in this project. Standstill period will be 10 days. This project is funded by the European Structural Investment Funds (ESIF) and the procurement is dependent on the final funding agreement