- Bnc-facility-notice - ecn.purdue.edu

Notice: Birck Cleanroom and Labs now open
by Daniel A Hosler 08 May '26

08 May '26

Dear BNC Users - The preventive maintenance closure of the Birck Nanotechnology Facility is now complete. The cleanroom and laboratories are now fully open for use. Some research equipment is still down for maintenance, or is in the process of being started back up. Please check i-Labs for individual equipment status and availability. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this critical preventive maintenance time. Dan Hosler Building Manager Birck Nanotechnology Center | Room 1214 Office: 765.496.3883 | Email: dhosler(a)purdue.edu

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Birck Cleanroom: Officially shut down
by Daniel A Hosler 04 May '26

04 May '26

Dear BNC User, The scheduled preventative maintenance closure began this morning, and the cleanroom is now officially shut down. The facility is currently running in idle mode to allow skilled trades to safely service the air handlers and related supporting subsystems. During this time, card reader access is restricted to critical personnel only. We anticipate reopening the cleanroom on May 8. Thank you for your patience and cooperation during this maintenance week. Best regards, Dan Hosler Building Manager Birck Nanotechnology Center | Room 1214 Office: 765.496.3883 | Email: dhosler(a)purdue.edu

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BNC Preventative Maintenance Closure: May 4 through May 8, 2026
by Daniel A Hosler 01 May '26

01 May '26

Dear BNC User, Attached is the announcement for Birck's upcoming preventative maintenance closure scheduled to begin May 4 and go through May 8, 2026. Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you, Dan Hosler Building Manager Birck Nanotechnology Center | Room 1214 Office: 765.496.3883 | Email: dhosler(a)purdue.edu

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Birck Power Outage: Follow-up
by Daniel A Hosler 28 Apr '26

28 Apr '26

Dear BNC Users, Following up on last night's power outage, we are pleased to report that Wade Power Plant has restored steam and the majority of building systems at Birck are back to normal operation. Current Status: * Labs & Offices: Temperature and climate controls have stabilized. * Cleanroom: Humidity control remains unstable but is expected to stabilize throughout the afternoon. Thank you for your patience as we work through these recovery efforts. Dan Hosler Building Manager Birck Nanotechnology Center | Room 1214 Office: 765.496.3883 | Email: dhosler(a)purdue.edu

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Birck Power Outage
by Daniel A Hosler 28 Apr '26

28 Apr '26

Dear BNC Users, Birck Nanotechnology Center experienced a significant power outage tonight at approximately 9:40 PM, affecting several critical building subsystems. While our Facilities Team is onsite and currently restoring available systems, we are waiting for the Wade Power Plant to bring steam back online. Because the plant was also impacted, we expect it will take a few hours for steam to be fully restored. What this means for you: Temperature and humidity control across all rooms in Birck will be unstable until steam is back in the building. We are monitoring the situation closely and will send further updates as more information becomes available. Thank you, Dan Hosler Building Manager Birck Nanotechnology Center | Room 1214 Office: 765.496.3883 | Email: dhosler(a)purdue.edu

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Reminder: Winter Recess Notice
by Ronald K Reger 05 Jan '26

05 Jan '26

Announcement On behalf of the Birck Leadership Team....... Dear Birck Research Community, The Purdue Winter Recess begins effective Tuesday afternoon December 23rd and concludes Monday morning, January 5th. The university is officially closed during this time. As we have done in past years, the Birck Nanotechnology Center will remain available for research but will be unstaffed and hazardous gasses will be unavailable. Lab work may otherwise proceed, though any fume hood work must be done with someone else present in the same laboratory or cleanroom bay (the "buddy" system). Following is a description of the Birck center during this period of university closure: 1. All labs and the cleanroom will be open. 2. All hazardous gases will be unavailable. 3. There may be a limited amount of construction continuing during this period, but it is not expected to interfere with research work. 4. Cleanroom gowns, hoods, and booties should be used for as long as possible as new items will not be restocked. 5. Any work that uses highly dermally toxic materials (25% TMAH, BOE, HF) ABSOLUTELY requires a buddy within eyesight at all times. 6. Precursors for ALD systems will be available. 7. No shipping or receiving is being done at any building on campus. 8. The custodians will not be working so restrooms will not be maintained and waste/trash will not be removed. o We encourage users to keep the facility clean and be extra vigilant about the hygiene. 9. Due to the lack of staffing, any faculty and senior researchers present are encouraged to be more proactive (e.g. occasional walk-throughs checking the labs where there is ongoing research). Email cbokrand(a)purdue.edu<mailto:cbokrand@purdue.edu> if you notice anything. Since there will be very limited staff support during this winter recess the research groups are strongly encouraged to accomplish as much processing as possible before gases are turned off on Dec. 23rd. See the following for more detailed information (this will be up on the BNC Wiki): 2025-12-23 to 2026-01-05: Reduced Holiday Operations Due to Purdue's Winter Recess hazardous gases will be unavailable from 2:30 PM Tuesday, December 23th until 8:00 AM on Monday, Jan 5th . Lab work may otherwise proceed, though any fume hood work must be done with someone else present in the same laboratory or cleanroom bay (the "buddy" system). Please note the following changes to our normal operation: o ALD sources will remain available * Unavailable gases: * Ammonia (NH3) * Boron trichloride (BCl3) * Chlorine (Cl2) * Dichlorosilane (H2Cl2Si) * Hydrogen (H2) * Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) * Krypton Fluoride (KrF) * Methane (CH4) * Nitric Oxide (NO) * Silane (SiH4) * Trichlorosilane (HCl3Si) * Tools affected: * Reduced capability: * PVD Nitride Sputtering System (NH3 unavailable) * Tube 1 Clean Ox (H2 unavailable, dry oxidation only) --- Provided the new furnace is installed by this date. * Tube 4 Field Ox (H2 unavailable, dry oxidation only) --- Provided the new furnace is installed by this date. * Tube 7 General Oxidation (H2 unavailable, dry oxidation only) * Panasonic (Cl2 and BCl3 unavailable) * Plasma-Therm Apex SLR ICP RIE Etcher (H2, Cl2 and BCl3 unavailable) * Plasma-Therm Versaline ICP RIE Etcher (Cl2 and BCl3 unavailable) * Shutdown: * Axic PECVD (NH3 & SiH4 unavailable) * Easy Tube 3000 DVD (CH4 unavailable) * Epigress (SiH4 unavailable) * H2S CVD (H2S & H2 unavailable) * Nitric Oxide Anneal (NO unavailable) * Plasma-Therm Apex SLR HDPCVD (SiH4 unavailable) * Tube 2 Nitride (NH3 and HCl3Si unavailable) * Tube 3 LTO (SiH4 unavailable) * Tube 6 Polysilicon (SiH4 unavailable) * Work with highly dermally toxic materials (25% TMAH, BOE, HF) ABSOLUTELY requires a buddy within eyesight at all times. * Custodial staff will not be working. * There will be no restocking of shared use supplies. * There will be no availability of engineering staff to answer questions or repair down equipment. * On metallization tools sources will not be changed and depositions must be < 200 nm. * "Preliminary" reservations that require staff approval will not be approved during this time. Contact Christian Bokrand (cbokrand(a)purdue.edu<mailto:cbokrand@purdue.edu>) with any questions.

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Issues with display of accounts in iLab
by Justin C Wirth 24 Nov '25

24 Nov '25

Hi Birck lab users and BRK staff, Over the weekend, there was an attempt by iLab to make changes to the way accounts are displayed in iLab. Unfortunately this did not go as planned, and now the display number of many accounts is not displaying in a useful way. Purdue iLab support is working with iLab to resolve this ASAP. In the meantime, please be aware that the numbers that display for your accounts may be confusing and it may not be obvious which account is which when you go to reserve equipment. The order of the accounts in the drop down menu has not changed, so if you know which account in the list you usually pick, you can still pick that one and it should be the right account. After this issue is resolved, if there is a question about whether you selected the right account or not, you will need to go into the calendars of the tools you used and double check that the right account was used; if not, you should select the right account and save it. BRK core staff, please hold off on all usage confirmations until this is resolved. If you have questions beyond this, please reach out to me or ilabhelp(a)purdue.edu<mailto:ilabhelp@purdue.edu>. Thanks, Justin Justin C. Wirth, PhD Senior Research Engineer - EBL Processes & Nanofab Process Integration Birck Nanotechnology Center | Room 2287A 765.494.8203 | jcwirth(a)purdue.edu<mailto:jcwirth@purdue.edu> BNCWiki<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpurdue.at…> | Purdue iLab<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpurdue.il…> | Book time on my calendar<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/5ad94572a9c04a4e8aa9159479128868…>

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Notice: Birck Cleanroom and Labs Now Open
by Daniel A Hosler 31 Oct '25

31 Oct '25

Dear BNC Users - The preventive maintenance closure of the Birck Nanotechnology Facility is now complete. The PM tasks that were planned for the upcoming weekend and next Monday have been completed early, thus, the cleanroom and laboratories are now open for research. Some research equipment is still down for maintenance, or is in the process of being started back up. Please check iLabs for individual equipment status and availability. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this critical preventive maintenance time. Dan Hosler Senior Research Facility Planning Engineer Birck Nanotechnology Center | Room 1120 Office: 765.496.3883 | Email: dhosler(a)purdue.edu

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Lab Hydronic Shutdown
by Greg A Laorange 31 Oct '25

31 Oct '25

All, We have finished our scheduled Hydronic shutdown, and the temperatures should rebound too normal. Thank you for your understanding and patience. Greg LaOrange Facility Engineer Purdue University Birck Nanotechnology Office: Phone 765-496-8329 Cell: Phone 574-870-7721

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Lab Hydronic Shutdown
by Greg A Laorange 30 Oct '25

30 Oct '25

All, We have a scheduled Hydronic shutdown tomorrow Friday morning to do some panel work. This will affect the temperatures in the Labs and office spaces, they will be running cooler than normal so please dress accordingly. This should be a 4-hour shutdown if there are no issues. Thanks for your understanding. Thanks Greg LaOrange Facility Engineer Purdue University Birck Nanotechnology Office: Phone 765-496-8329 Cell: Phone 574-870-7721

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