UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO - NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A SINGLE SOURCE CONTRACT: 18-066
Digital Materials Deposition Platform
The University of Waterloo (UW) intends to award a single source contract to Ceradrop, of Limoges, France, for the purchase of a Digital Materials Deposition Platform – the CeraPrinter F-Series – for advanced process development in Printed Electronics and Smart 3D Printing.
This is an Advanced Notice indicating to the supplier community that UW intends to award a contract for these goods to a pre-identified supplier. If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date of this notice, a statement of specifications that, at a minimum, equals or exceeds the stated requirements set out in this Notice, the competitive requirements of the University are considered to have been met. Following notification to any suppliers not successful in demonstrating that their statement of specifications meets the requirements set out in this Notice, the contract may then be awarded to the pre-identified supplier.
If other potential suppliers submit statements of specifications during the fifteen calendar day posting period, and meet the requirements set out in this Notice, UW will proceed to a Request for Proposal process, in order to award the contract.
SPECIFICATIONS
The required digital materials deposition of electronic inks is to be used for the development of large-area electronic systems based on organic and inorganic materials. The deposition system must have the capabilities to combine and deposit materials using inkjet and aerosol-jet technologies on a single platform. The combination of these capabilities will allow the printing and patterning of polymeric solutions and suspensions of two-dimensional materials for fabrication of thin-film transistors on flexible and rigid platforms. The system must also have the capability for high throughput and large-area coverage with a printed feature resolution that is < 10 microns on a surface and droplet volumes that can be varied between 10 pL to 100 pL. The system should also be able to process a wide variety of inks ranging from organic solvents to inorganic nanoparticles suspended in aqueous liquids. The system also must have capabilities for substrate heating up to temperatures of 90C, and have the potential for expanding of additional heating systems and ultra-violet curing for post-processing printed features.
The budget for this purchase is approximately $500,000 USD, plus HST.
SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION
Ceradrop is the only supplier we are aware of whose digital materials deposition platform is able to combine ink-jet printing with aerosol jet capabilities on a single platform. The capability provides an advantage for the researchers to develop novel inks for printed electronics over a wide range of materials. No other vendor in the world provides this combination of capabilities on a single tool controlled using the same software operating on the same platform. Existing capabilities outside of Ceradrop can only provide separate systems that need to be operated independently in order to obtain integrated printed electronic devices and circuits. The separate systems offered by other vendors have intrinsic disadvantages for combining different materials systems with high quality that will be used to enable the development of high-performance printed flexible electronics. The integrated system provided by Ceradrop enables the combination of different materials in a seamless process that provides improved materials integration, resulting in high-performance devices and circuits that would not be possible with separate systems.
Lastly, in order to achieve both inkjet printing and aerosol jet capabilities outside of Ceradrop, separate vendors are needed that would complicate both vendor support and operation of the printing system. The Ceradrop system simplifies the integration, the operation, and enables our future research goals in a much simpler and, over the long term, a more cost effective integrated system.
Process
Suppliers who consider their equipment fully compliant and available within budget may submit a statement of specifications, in writing, to the contact person identified in this Notice on or before the closing date of this Notice. The statement of specifications must unequivocally demonstrate how the supplier meets these advertised requirements within budget.
Date of issue: Thursday, June 7, 2018
Closing Date: Friday, June 22, 2018
Contact
Christine Wagner, CPPB, CSCP – Research Coordinator and Senior Buyer
Procurement and Contract Services
University of Waterloo
Ph: 519-888-4567 ext. 32074
Email – cpwagner@uwaterloo.ca, or, procure@uwaterloo.ca
