Access to MIT.nano is available to both domestic and foreign companies. A project being worked on at MIT.nano must satisfy the following criteria:
- The company representative must be a properly-trained process engineer who is qualified to do the work. Normally, this means someone (a) with prior cleanroom experience (or students who completed a lab class utilizing the cleanroom), or (b) having completed the half-day “quick-start”. In general, processing for a project will not be done by MIT.nano staff members.
- The proposed project must be compatible with the fabrication facilities, from the point of view of materials and required process steps, as well as available fab capacity; projects will not be allowed if the added load or requirements would have deleterious effects on other projects. A project that requires use of the cleanrooms must be approved by the Process Technology Committee (PTC).
- The company must identify a source of funds to pay for all fabrication costs, including computer accounts, under the MIT.nano cost structure. This normally consists of a blanket purchase order for an amount equal to the estimated total costs of the project. Fabrication fees will be invoiced and charged monthly.
Fees
Each company engineer shall pay MIT fees based on the use s/he makes of MIT.nano's facilities. Fab fees will be billed monthly and will be due and payable within 45 days following the date of invoice. External industry user fees will be equal to three times the then-current, standard, published fees charged to internal users for such use. Download the current Fab.nano internal rates.
There are no membership fees for external industry users.
Application and Approval Process
>>Follow these steps for new external users.
As part of the new user steps, the process engineer must complete all MIT.nano safety and EHS requirements and be qualified individually on all necessary pieces of equipment by the technical staff. External industry projects, once accepted, share the same priority as other student-run research projects.
Citations and Reports
All reports and publications must include acknowledgement of the use of MIT.nano resources as follows: "This work was carried out in part through the use of MIT.nano's facilities."
Intellectual Property
While the primary purpose of allowing access to external industry users is not the generation of MIT-owned intellectual property, when MIT personnel make significant technical contributions to a non-MIT project, these contributions should be recognized. Accordingly, any personnel who participate directly in an approved project will be asked to execute an intellectual property agreement which asserts that MIT may have a right to shared ownership of those portions of the project to which significant intellectual contributions are made by MIT personnel.