Notice of Intent to Noncompetitively Lock-In Amplifier

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking information from sources that may be capable of providing a lock-in amplifier. NIST is constructing a custom Time Domain Thermoreflectance (TDTR) instrument. In TDTR, a modulated ultrafast laser “pump” pulse heats the sample and a delayed pulsed “probe” beam interrogates the thermal properties of thin film or multilayered materials as a function of the probe delay time.

Lock-in amplifiers are used to detect the thermal response signal of the probe beam, which acquires the same modulation frequency of the modulated pump beam. Lock-in amplifiers can extract very small signals buried in noise. The working principle of a lock-in amplifier, called demodulation or phase-sensitive detection, rests on mixing the measured signal with a reference frequency followed by low-pass filtering.

Boxcar Averager units integrated within one of the lock-ins will increase the measurement speed and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The lock-in amplifiers shall be fully compatible with Zurich Instruments software development kit LabOne® and LabOne® Application Programming Interface (APIs) due to pre-existing proprietary custom software.

Furthermore, all three lock-in amplifiers in this requirement shall be fully compatible with Zurich Instruments ZSync proprietary bus to locally interconnect all three lock-ins for multi-device synchronization (MDS) and for compatibility with pre-existing Zurich Instruments HF2LI lock-ins in our lab. Zurich Instruments hardware and the LabOne® software enable multi-device synchronization (MDS) for up to 8 instruments and allows users to access them through a single graphical user interface and LabOne® API session.

The TDTR instrument will enable NIST to uniquely measure the in situ thermal properties of thin film and multilayer materials in wide bandgap power electronics materials, packaging materials, and integrated chip components, directly supporting our CHIPS Project: Thermoreflectance Thermal Property Measurements. This CHIPS project supports Grand Challenge 4: Modeling and Simulating Semiconductor Materials, Designs, and Components. This notice is not a request for a quotation.

A solicitation document will not be issued and quotations will not be requested. This acquisition is being conducted under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b) via FAR 13.501. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 334516 Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing.

In order to meet the project requirement NIST requires three (3) lock-in amplifiers that are fully compatible with Zurich Instruments software development kit LabOne® and LabOne® Application Programming Interface (APIs) due to pre-existing proprietary custom software.

Furthermore, all three lock-in amplifiers in this requirement shall be fully compatible with Zurich Instruments ZSync proprietary bus to locally interconnect all three lock-ins for multi-device synchronization (MDS) and for compatibility with pre-existing Zurich Instruments HF2LI lock-ins in our lab. NIST conducted market research by internet searches, GSA Advantage searches, company website searches, discussions with sources, and sources sought posting. The results of that market research revealed that only Zurich Instruments;

UEI: WXNAU91NVWB6 appears to be capable of meeting NIST’s requirements. However, any sources that believe they are capable of meeting NIST’s minimum requirements are encouraged to respond to this notice by the response date to provide the following information at a minimum: Company Unique Entity Identifier number in https://sam.gov; details about what your company is capable of providing that meets or exceeds NIST’s minimum requirements; whether your company is an authorized reseller of the product or service being cited and evidence of such authorization; and any other information that can help NIST determine whether this requirement may be competitively satisfied.