Toxic Gas and Monitoring System

Advance Contract Award Notice: An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

Background: The Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre (CPFC) of the National Research Council Canada provides highly specialized semiconductor fabrication services for a wide array of external clients to manage, develop and maintain client’s intellectual property using a variety of semiconductor substrates i.e.: gallium arsenide (GaAs); indium phosphide (InP); and gallium nitride (GaN).

NRC offers foundry services or end-to-end fabrication of photonic devices, photonic integrated circuits and gallium nitride electronics. The CPFC can also develop new process technologies for our client's devices. NRC leverages intellectual property processes that have been developed throughout the years, we create custom manufacturable process flows for complex components in a short period of time.

In addition to fabrication, the CPFC can offer design and testing services and has a suite of quality control and failure analysis tools at its disposal for mid and post-process quality assurance and troubleshooting.

Requirement

The Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre (CPFC) has a requirement for a Gas Monitoring System upgrade. The upgrade consists of seamlessly replacing updating of an existing, in-service Toxic Gas and Monitoring System (TGMS) components and programming to support an investment project requiring expanding the existing facility to support the NRC’s operational and Research and Development projects.

NRC’s current Honeywell Toxic Gas and Monitoring System installed supports a multi-shift foundry operations and NRC research activities. CPFC utilizes various hazardous materials in the production of Photonic Devices. These hazards must be monitored continuously to ensure the safety of all personnel and facility.

The current TGMS system is not large enough to handle the additional points that will be required by the new construction and must be modified and expanded. The current TGMS integrates exclusively Honeywell gas detection equipment, Vertex and Midas platforms, onto a proprietary Human-Machine Interface (HMI) software that provides visualization of the entire system. A commercial grade computer system runs the visualization software to show status of all gas detection including gas concentrations, alarm levels and fault conditions and includes safety features such as data logging and historical data for all TGMS events.

The expansion of the Foundry facilities through a reinvestment project that will address targeted issues associated with improving waste management practices and addressing obsolescence of key aging toolsets. This requirement necessitates the expansion and upgrading of the TGMS. The expansion/updating of the current TGMS system will include:

1. The Control system must interface with the field devices for equipment shutdown, strobes/horns for annunciation, and building and facility management systems;

2. The Human-Man Interface (HMI) software must provide visualization of the entire system;

3. The backbone control system must be a Central Control Panel (CCP) and remote located;

4. Power-Over-Ethernet (POE) Panels, and a Remote I/O (RIO) Panels supporting a satellite;

5. Lab with all devices communicating via an Ethernet backbone network;

6. Every channel of input and output must be completely programmable to any other node on the network.

Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that its Gas Monitoring System meets the following requirements:

(a) The Engineer assigned to the project must have significant experience (30 years’ experience) with TGMS and significant experience with Semiconductor Facility gas detection designs, installations, system integration, start-up, service, and sustaining support catered to customer needs and will incorporate any TCP/IP or Modbus device as per client wishes;

(b) The Engineer assigned to the project must guarantee a seamless expansion of existing CPFC where old and new TGMS operate on a single network fully compatible;

(c) The Engineer assigned to the project must have a system that incorporates any detection Modbus/TC IP device for integration into an expanded CPFC TGMS;

(d) Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that theyhave significant experience in conducting projects and at least three semiconductor TGMS installations projects that are similar in size and complexity.

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that its Gas Monitoring System meets the following requirements:

(a) The Engineer assigned to the project must have significant experience (30 years’ experience) with TGMS and significant experience with Semiconductor Facility gas detection designs, installations, system integration, start-up, service, and sustaining support catered to customer needs and will incorporate any TCP/IP or Modbus device as per client wishes;

(b) The Engineer assigned to the project must guarantee a seamless expansion of existing CPFC where old and new TGMS operate on a single network fully compatible;

(c) The Engineer assigned to the project must have a system that incorporates any detection Modbus/TC IP device for integration into an expanded CPFC TGMS;

(d) Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that they have significant experience in conducting projects and at least three semiconductor TGMS installations projects that are similar in size and complexity.

This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement(s)

Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA)

Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier

The current Honeywell TGMS does not have the capacity to include the monitoring points required for the RAFF expansion. Honeywell will not provide NRC all TGMS source code nor passwords. KFPI LLC Engineering Team include the original designers of the current Honeywell branded TGMS and as well as the engineers that already successfully expanded the CPFC TMGS to incorporate our last Epitaxial growth expansion. KFPI is the manufacture, owner, developer and integrator of the TGMS upgrade. This sole source is predicated on derisking the TGMS expansion, minimizing the impact on NRCs research clients and expanding capacity within the fab, and ensuring NRC has all code and passwords for maximum future flexibility to sustain and enhance our Foundry operations.

The contractor is able to maintain compatibility between existing and the proposed research equipment including research methods, software, and maintenance regimes. To enable maximum operational uptime and efficiency, it is critical that this interchangeability and process standardization remain in place for manufacturing process continuity. The cascading cost implications associated with trying to manage multiple versions of these complex tools and the unknowns associated with process variances would be significant and challenging while operating in a multi-shift production environment.

Over the last fifteen years, CPFC has grown to become recognized as a respected “brand” in the fabrication of optical devices on III-V Semiconductors. While not easily quantified, the potential loss to the Crown of revenue streams and reputation from inadvertent misprocessing would be highly detrimental and potentially unrecoverable.

Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)

The following exception(s) to the Government Contracts Regulations is (are) invoked for this procurement under subsection sub-section 6 (d) - "only one person is capable of performing the work").

Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons

The following exclusion(s) and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under the: (a) Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) – Article 513 (1) (b) (iii): due to an absence of competition for technical reasons;

(b) Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) – Article Kbis-16 (2) (c): necessary to protect intellectual property;

(c) Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement – Article 1409 (1) (b) (iii): due to an absence of competition for technical reasons;

(d) Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement – Article 17.11 (2) (b) (iii): due to an absence of competition for technical reasons;

(e) Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement – referencing the WTO Protocol Amending the GPA, Article XIII (1) (b) (iii): due to an absence of competition for technical reasons;

(f) Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement – Article 16.10 (1) (b) (iii): because of the absence of competition for technical reasons;

(g) Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) –Article 1409 (1) (b) (iii): due to an absence of competition for technical reasons;

Ownership of Intellectual Property: Ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the proposed contract will vest in the Contractor.

Name and address of the pre-identified supplier: Koetter Fire Protection International LLC 10351 Olympic Drive, Dallas, Texas 75220 United States

Contract Period: The Proposed contract period estimate is from 18 to 24 months from start to completion

Suppliers' right to submit a statement of capabilities: Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

Closing date for submission of Statements of Capabilities: August 15, 2023 | 2 p.m. Eastern Time

Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities: Johnathon Gillis Manager, Procurement and Contracting Services Office of Facility Renewal Management Special Projects Telephone : 343-552-4124 Email : Johnathon.Gillis@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca Address: 1200 Montreal Road, Ottawa Ontario K1A 0R6