One of the fundamental reasons for the creation of the Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility was to enable access for Duke University researchers to equipment that they do not have the resources to operate and maintain on their own. As with other university-based shared facilities, hourly user fees are charged as a means of recovering the costs associated with operating such a facility. These fees are reviewed and approved by the SMIF Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC), the SMIF Oversight Committee, and the Duke University Central Accounting office.

Equipment Use Fees

Equipment Use Fees are used to recover operating costs associated with the equipment and the laboratory (equipment and lab supplies, maintenance costs, labor to keep the tools running, etc.)

TOOL GROUP	DESCRIPTION	University and Non-Profit		Industry (no cap)
		Equipment Use Rate	Monthly Cap	Equipment Use Rate
Clean Room	All equipment in the SMIF Cleanroom Facility	$35/Hour	$1050	$70/Hour
Sample Prep and Offline	SAW1, CPD1, SPUT1, WIBO1, PARYL1, VITR1, PLAP1, OVEN1, ACIDHOOD3, SOLVHOOD3	$15/Hour	$300	$30/Hour
SEM	Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM1), Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM2)	$20/Hour	$400	$40/Hour
TEM	Transmission Electron Microscope	$40/Hour	$800	$80/Hour
AFM / ZYGO / MSA	AFM1, ZYGO1, MSA1 (Atomic Force Microscope, 3-D Optical Profiler and Micro-Strain Analyzer)	$15/Hour	$300	$30/Hour
Optical (OPT)	OPT1, OPT2, OPT3, OPT4	$15/Hour	$300	$30/Hour
XPS	X-Ray Photospectrometer	$20/Hour	$400	$40/Hour
XDIF	X-Ray Diffractometer	$15/Hour	$300	$30/Hour

The monthly cap is the maximum amount that is charged for that tool grouping per month. This cap is applied per user within a given fund code, and not per faculty or PI. There is no monthly cap on users fees incurred by industry users.

SMIF Labor Fees

$50/hour for University and Non-Profit Users

$75/hour for Industry Users

This fee is charged in addition to the equipment use rate when staff labor is required or desired. Examples include equipment training of new users, and processing or measurement support by a SMIF staff member. SMIF labor fees are not capped on a monthly basis for any user.

Billing Methodology

Users are required to sign-in for each tool using the “Log Usage” function of the web site before beginning work. At the conclusion of their work on the tool, they are required to sign-out using the web site.

The billing cycle runs from the 21st of one month to the 20th of the following month. Each month, one copy of an invoice that details the user charges for that period is sent to the designated PI of the fund code or the user’s supervisor. A second copy of the invoice is sent to the designated business manager.