May 2015 Survey
Survey introduction
The May 2015 survey was the 12th survey carried out using a format where individual cleanroom users were asked about their view on various parts of using DTU Danchip's facilities and in particular the cleanroom facilities.
The questionnaire was send to 379 registered users (based on the logging of cleanroom use) unfortunately 11 of the e-mail adresses was obsolete and thus the mails bounced, which brought the total number of potential answers to 368 . In total 58 persons answered the questionnaire which means an answer fraction of 15%.
This page deals with the comments given as part of the questionnaire. Danchip values this feedback highly.
Comments
The comments appear here as they were written in the feedback field of the questionnaire. In a few cases they have been anonymized or the worst spelling mistakes corrected.
Comment 1
I only use XPS facilities; there has been alot of unfortunate down time the last few weeks but normally its works well and is generally not over booked.
Action:
This is correct, we had problems with timely manufacturer support, it should work now.
Comment 2
Action:
LabManager now only send mails to the people who must get it because they are authorized to use equipment - or users who wish to receive more mails. Before November 1, 2015 we will extend the system to take take of messages concerning cancelled bookings and only partly used bookings.
Comment 3
Danchip staff do their utmost to ensure machine availability, but it can still be frustrating for users to have a machine down for extended periods.
Action:
This is mostly due to the limited availability and long delivery time of spare parts. We are indeed not very happy about the extended downtimes but given the complexity of the equipment there is little we can do about it.
Comment 4
The helpfulness of the staff is great. However, we are often waiting long for answers to training requests. I am not happy that the IBSD is not available for TiO2 deposition most of the time. The e-beam is heavily booked and the waiting time is 3 weeks nowadays. This has been much better in the past. It is not very convenient that I loose authorization on machines which I do not use very often but that are easy to use, e.g. Wordentec and RIE2. It becomes complicated to plan my work if I need to find one of you to join me.
Action: New approaches to handling training requests
We are continuosly working on matching trainers and training requests, but the first part of 2015 has surprised us quite a bit. We got close to twice as many training requests as usual, so that has been quite tough to tackle, which has indeed led to some delays. We are currently working on new ways of handling the massive influx of training requests. A particular initiative we are working on is the Danchip Adviser, which is a person from Danchip who becomes more involved in the individual users project and can help guide process flows and tool selection. If you are interested in this program please contact Anders Jorgensen.
The IBSD/IBE is a multiuse tool and as such change status from time to time. Currently the usage during etching setup has been much larger than the deposition usage, which means that we have prioritized having the tool in etching mode for longer time, we do understand that this is unwanted for the individual user, however in order to maximize the time the tool is used, we have choosen this.
The e-beam has become much more booked, we believe that there are two reasons for this: 1. The focus on training individuals to operate the tool has paid off 2. The structure with loading times has had the unwanted effect of people booking much more time than needed. This appears to have improved after we changed the loading into a more floating time structure so the e-beam should be less problematic to get time on now.
You loose authorization if you have not used a tool for 9 months. If the time interval between usage is that high we are not confident that you have been keeping yourself up to date on the changes in the manual or the way the tool is used. That is why we require you to be re-authorized. If indeed the intervals you are working with is on the order of a year, I am sure we can find relevant assistance so that your work is not significantly delayed.
Comment 5
Staff Helpfulness should have a "very satisfied" as they are very helpful if they are around. However, it would be nice if there were a service provided, where staff were guaranteed the first 10-15 minutes of your session in order to help you with things like mounting the right detector and minimise background noise. I normally do not use the instrument very often the small things are sometimes forgotten a little bit :)
Action:
Unfortunately we do not have sufficient resources for that proposal. Maybe one of your colleagues who uses the SEM more often can help you.
Comment 6
There is a lot of chemical stains everywhere giving the clean room a dirty look. maybe make sure to tell people to clean after themselves?
Action:
This is correct, but the cleanroom is in use for more than 20 years now. We are in the process of exchanging most of the fume hoods/wet benches.
Comment 7
As a new cleanroom user getting hang on how much in advance the processes have to be planned to have the right metals and laser etc. So maybe that could be something that could be brought up more from supervisors of students and also from the Danchip side. Over all you are doing good job! The staff is just awesome :) Big thanks to Conny and Martin!
Action:
Good point, get a Danchip staff member as co-supervisor and you are fine.
Comment 8
It would be nice with some information on LabAdvisor regarding how to get Danchip personal to make wafers for you. I'm thinking about which email address to write, perhaps a time estimate for delivery, and something about the rate you charge. I recently thought about using this service, but could not find any information about it, so I just got training in the machines needed, even though I'm probably not going to need the machines again soon.
Action:
Industrial users may use: Sales@danchip.dtu.dk for just that kind of requests.
For DTU users, we do not in general offer this service. We used to do so in the past but with the change in payment model in 2012-2013 this is no longer done. There are several reasons: Danchip's primary tasks for DTU is to make sure the cleanroom and tools are operational and also that we instruct users on tools. Another perspective is that if an external project has received funding for cleanroom work, then the people working on the project are supposed to be doing this work. So if Danchip was not seen as a partner in the project when it was applied for, we will in general not work on the project afterwards.
With that said, we are currently working on establishing a scheme where we actually will do the fabrication, also for DTU users. We have interpreted some of the users in such a way that the cleanroom fabrication is actually not part of their project, they have no learning objectives related to the cleanroom. Basically they are supposed to make something in the cleanroom and then later do the real work using that component. Such users have limited interest in understaning what is being done, which makes instructions take longer and they most likely will not return to the cleanroom later. For such specific cases we will consider doing the cleanroom work for them in order to be more ressource efficient on the DTU scale. If you have such a case feel free to contact Anders Jorgensen regarding it. A final note though, do not expect very fast delivery, especially not if the projects are discussed during the very busy months of January-May or October, November
Comment 9
A bit faster replay on training request.
Action: Rethinking training handling for January-May
We are continuosly working on matching trainers and training requests, but the first part of 2015 has surprised us quite a bit. We got close to twice as many training requests as usual, so that has been quite tough to tackle, which has indeed led to some delays. We are currently working on new ways of handling the massive influx of training requests. A particular initiative we are working on is the Danchip Adviser, which is a person from Danchip who becomes more involved in the individual users project and can help guide process flows and tool selection. If you are interested in this program please contact Anders Jorgensen.
Comment 10
I think Danchip's initiative to change payment rules can help to make equipment that is heavily booked more available.
Action: Continously evaluating heavily booked tools
We believe that you are quite right in your comment. Once a month we are internally evaluating the booking situation of our most booked tools to see if initiatives are required. One of the possible initiatives is changing the way the tools are paid for, we have recently changed the payment approach for SEMs and the Nickel Plater and so far the results are promising. If you have suggestions for how to improve the booking situation for tools please forward your idea to the tool responsible team.
Comment 11
E-beam writer: the loadteam are not always there for loading at the loading time. And the machine is fully booked because of the very limited cassette loading possibility. It will make the machine operated more efficiently if Danchip allow some heavy users to load the cassette by themselves.
Action: Change from fixed to flexible loading times. Move job compilations to other work stations.
A careful analysis of the e-beam usage shows that even though the e-beam can seem quite booked in certain peak hours, the actual beam beam writing time is much lower. This is partly due to the fact that certain users tend to book the entire time slot between two loading times and partly due to that some people have been found to compile their files directly on the JEOL Sun machine, instead of using one of the other work stations dedicated for this task. We have now changed from fixed to flexible loading times. From now on, the user has to contact a member of the loading team when his/her samples are ready. This should both limit the overbooking and elliminate the issue with Danchip staff not being there for the regular loading hours. Users are also urged to compile their jobs offline, as described in the manual. Furthermore, we are trying to minimize recurring Danchip bookings for maintenance and test runs, even though we sometimes have to perform such long-time stress tests of the machine in search of intermittent errors. Regarding the actual physical loading of cassettes, this is a quite delicate job. If a sample or a sample holder screw were to be dropped inside the main e-beam chamber just once, the damages could amount to several millions of DKK. Hence, we prefer this operation to be performed by Danchip staff.
Comment 12
AOE --> :( SEM leo and Supra are hard to book.
Action:
It took a long time, because of many different malfunctions and long lead times of spare parts but it is FIXED now and will never break down again :-)
Comment 13
When introductions to machines are given, sometimes there are important information missing, such as parts of the machine that can be taken in/out and that would need to be checked to assure process stability.
Action:
It would be nice to have more specific information. This is important. Could you send a mail with your experience to the relevant tool team.
Comment 14
It is always a pleasure to work with the highly competent and helpful staff of Danchip.
Action:
Thanks !.
Comment 15
The cleanroom needs USB key for data transfer from computers without network acces!
Action:
Equipment computers - which mostly run Windows XP - have been put on a closed network and it is possible to get data through http://www.remote.dtu.dk . A few computers are not on the network yet, they will be soon.