Access Policy

To access our fabrication capabilities, please contact us to discuss your project or equipment access requirements with our Technical and Process Manager, Dr. Kaushal Vora. There is a choice to have your job done by one of our experienced process engineers (assisted rates) or we can provide you with direct access to our equipment (unassisted rate). To obtain access to our laboratories and equipment, we require a mandatory University registration (for all stafff, students, visitors, collaborators, etc.), laboratory inductions, safety training and equiment specific user training. The steps required to sign you up, are outlined in our 'onbaording procedure' below.

Note: New users, external to the ANU, will have to apply for a visitor status if you like to work on-site and use the ANFF tools. Unfortunately, this will add some extra time to the onboarding process. Please contact us early, to allow for extra time, related to the additional administrative procedure.

Onboarding Procedure

If you decide to use our facilities, please contact Dr. Kaushal Vora to discuss your project requirements and induction timing. The following is a step-by-step list of required actions, to provide you with access to our tools:
1) Tier 2 induction to Physics buildings (it provides an induction to office areas, entrance/exit routes, emergency assembly areas, rest rooms, kitchen areas, WHS management, fire warden and first-aid contacts, etc.).
The following is a list of mandatory online training modules:
University WHS Induction (Tier 1 Induction)
Setting up your workstation (WHSO29, Pulse)
Figtree Incident & Hazard Reporting Tool (WHSO07, Pulse)
2) ANFF staff will request authorisation of Physics building door access (Cardex), issued by the WHS team
3) Tier 3 induction to our laboratories (it provides an induction to high-risk lab areas).
The following is a list of mandatory online training modules:
ANU WHS Risk Management (WHSO03, Pulse)
Hazardous Substances (WHSO11, Pulse)
Flammable Substances (WHSO16, Pulse)
Manual Tasks at ANU (WHSO22, Pulse)
Gas Cylinders and Aerosols (WHSO33, Pulse)
4) Equipment specific training for new users will be provided by ANFF staff.
Please get in contact with the main contact process engineer to arrange a suitable training time for the required tool (see Equipment Information section to find the main contact for each tool).
5) If required, ANFF staff will authorise GMAS access (gas monitoring and access system), relevant for particular equimpent.
6) ANFF staff will request authorisation for relevant Laboratory access (Salto), issued by the WHS team.
7) The new user and can sign-up to our online booking system and use the tool at a suitable time.
9) ANFF staff will send out monthly invoices for the accumulated cost to the users.
Please note:
ANFF tools can only be used by the person who has booked the tool under his/her name using our online booking system.
For accountability reasons, we do not allow the usage of equipment on behalf of someone else's booking.

Pricing Information

The ANFF reviews it's Access & Pricing Policy each year and due to the diversity of services offered by the Nodes they all vary.
The table below shows the revised rates for equipment/services at the ACT Node, starting from July 2025.

Tool/Equipment/Service	University or PFRA¹ Researcher unassisted / assisted	Australian Industry (International User²) unassisted / assisted
Flagship Tools FIB³ and MOCVD (all InP, GaN, GaAs systems)	$60/$110 per hour	$150/$250 per hour ($250/$350 per hour)
Major Tools (EBL³, SEM-CL, EBeam Evap, ICP-CL, ICP-F, Suss MA, NIL/HE, P-ALD, PECVD, Thermal Evaporator, Hot Embosser, Sputter⁵, AFM⁶)	$50/$100 per hour	$150/$250 per hour
Small Processing Tools (SPT) (eg. Barrel Etcher, Ellipsometer, Rapid Thermal Annealer, Surface Profiler, Vacuum Oven, Wire Bonder, Flip-chip Bonder)	$20/$70 per hour	$70/$170 per hour
General assistance	$50 per hour	$100 per hour

General consumables wafers, sample boxes, etc.	At cost
Precious metals Gold (Au) in Ebeam Evaporator / Sputter Gold (Au) in Thermal Evaporator Platinum (Pt), Palladium (Pd)	$4.50 per nm $2.00 per nm $2.00 per nm
Precious metals in Focused Ion Beam (FIB): Platinum (Pt)	time < 20 min: no charge time > 20 min: $90/hour⁴
Materials in P-ALD	$10/hour

¹⁾ PFRA are Australia's Publicly Funded Research Agencies: CSIRO, ANSTO, GA, AIMS, NMI and DSTO.

²⁾ International users can apply to the Node Manager for a discount on PRE-PAYMENT of bulk access time.
The discount only applies to 'unassisted access'.

³⁾ The FIB and EBL are tools that have a minimum booking of 1hr. If only 1/2 hr is booked, it will be billed as one hour.

⁴⁾ The hourly rate is charged pro rata, in 1min increments. Example: 45mins costs $67.50 (=45/60*$90).

⁵⁾ The Sputter has a $20/booking charge.

⁶⁾AFM consumables (each): 'normal' cantilever $50,-; 'special' cantilever $80,-; cantilever gel-box: $15,-

More details can be found on the ANFF headquaters web site in the 'Access, Pricing and Client Services Policies' document.