Substrate wafers for Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)

Tampere University Foundation sr (Tampere University, TAU) is about to execute a direct procurement of 'Substrate wafers for Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE)'. Contracting authority estimates that price range of procurement is €100 000 - 150 000 depending on consumption/volume of research activities during a 4 year period (excluding VAT).

According to the section 40 of the Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts 1397/2016 a contracting entity may opt for direct procurement if only a certain supplier can implement the procurement for a technical reason, or for a reason related to protecting an exclusive right. It shall be a further condition that there are no reasonable alternatives or substitute solutions, and that the absence of competition is not due to an artificial narrowing of the terms and conditions of the procurement. The contracting unit carried out a thorough market survey. The outcome of survey was that only one supplier can meet the requirements for gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium phosphide (InP) substrate wafers. Fabrication of substrates is demanding and also MBE related processes are demanding and finetuned over long periods of time. Substrates have to be able to meet high quality - and substrate quality problems are unlikely to be fixed by optimizing the MBE processes. Weak or unsuitable substrate wafers’ quality is likely to cause cumulative increase in costs and also lead to significant losses in research results. Contracting authority’s research personnel has extensive cumulative know-how on how to grow on AXT-Tongmei’s supplied substrate wafers the high quality thin film structures for photonic devices. Therefore, conclusion is that it is necessary to purchase substrate wafers from only one supplier with both high quality and suitability features and also with collaborative know-how of MBE processes concerning university’s research activities.