User Fees and Billing

As with other university-based shared facilities, hourly user fees are charged as a means of recovering a portion of the costs associated with operating such a facility. These fees are reviewed and approved by the SMIF Faculty Advisory Committee, the Pratt School of Engineering Dean's Office, 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.)

Industry users working on government contracts are billed at the "External University and Non-Profit" rate.

Note: The users fees typically increase by 3% on July 1 (the start of a new fiscal year)

Instrument or TOOL GROUP

DESCRIPTION

Duke University

External University
and Non-Profit

Industry
(no cap)

Use Rate

Monthly Cap

Use Rate

Monthly Cap

Use Rate

Clean Room

Lab fee for using the Cleanroom*

$47.78/Hour

$1432.77

$76.92/Hour

$2306.76

$119.44/Hour

Sample Prep and Offline

All equipment in the Sample Prep Lab**

$23.57/Hour

$450.20

$37.95/Hour

$724.83

$58.93/Hour

IMILL1

Ion Mill in Sample Prep Lab

$5.63/Hour

$450.20

$9.06/Hour

$724.83

$14.07/Hour

EBL1

E-Beam Lithography (rate is in addition to Clean Room fee)

$30.95/Hour

$773.22

$49.83/Hour

$1244.89

$77.38/Hour

SEM3

Apreo High Res SEM with EDS

$38.27/Hour

$765.34

$61.61/Hour

$1232.20

$95.67/Hour

SEM4

Tabletop SEM

$30.95/Hour

$619.03

$49.83/Hour

$996.64

$77.38/Hour

TEM2

Tecani TEM

$60.21/Hour

$1204.30

$96.94/Hour

$1938.92

$150.54/Hour

TEM3

Krios Cryo-TEM

$55.00/Hour

N/A

$88.55/Hour

N/A

$137.50/Hour

MICROCT1

Micro X-Ray Computed Tomography Scanner 

$75.80/Hour

$1516.06

$122.04/Hour

$2440.85

$189.51/Hour

RECO3

Analysis workstation for MICROCT1

$12.89Hour

$257.74

$20.75/Hour

$414.96

$32.22/Hour

PRINT3D

FormLabs SLA 3D Printer

$0.30/mL - regular resin

$0.40/mL - special resin

$10 setup fee

 

$0.48/mL - regular resin

$0.64/mL - special resin

$16.10 setup fee

 

$0.75/mL - regular resin

$1.00/mL - special resin

$20 setup fee

OPT2

FTIR

$23.57/Hour

$450.20

$37.95/Hour

$724.83

$58.93/Hour

OPT3

Raman/PL

$24.76/Hour

$495.22

$39.86/Hour

$797.31

$61.90/Hour

OPT4

UV-Vis-NIR

$23.57/Hour

$450.20

$37.95/Hour

$724.83

$58.93/Hour

AFM2

Cypher Scanning Probe Microscope

$28.14/Hour

$562.75

$45.30/Hour

$906.03

$70.34/Hour

MSA1

Micro Strain Analyser

$23.57/Hour

$450.20

$37.95/Hour

$724.83

$58.93/Hour

ZYGO1

Optical 3-D Profiler

$23.57/Hour

$450.20

$37.95/Hour

$724.83

$58.93/Hour

SAXS2

Small Angle X-Ray Scattering - Point Source

$24.76/Hour

$495.22

$39.86/Hour

$797.31

$61.90/Hour

XDIF1

X-Ray Diffractometer 

$24.76/Hour

$495.22

$39.86Hour

$797.31

$61.90/Hour

XPS1

X-Ray Photospectrometer 

$31.51/Hour

$630.29

$50.73/Hour

$1014.76

$78.79/Hour

*Cleanroom users are billed for the time they are in the cleanroom as noted by logging in (starting a tool group reservation) upon entering the cleanroom and logging out (stopping a tool group reservation) upon exiting the cleanroom.  Reservations for equipment inside the cleanroom are not billed, except for the EBL.

There is also a $25 per use materials surcharge when using EVAP1, EVAP2, SPUT2, SPUT3

**All equipment in the Sample Prep Lab is billed at the same rate, excpet for the Ion Mill (IMIILL1).  Microscope usage in the sample prep lab is not billed.

The monthly cap is the maximum amount that is charged for that tool group or instrument 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 TEM3 (Krios Cryo-TEM) usage or on users fees incurred by industry users.

SMIF Labor Fees

$73.20/hour for Duke University Users

$117.86/hour for External University and Non-Profit Users

$183.01/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 reserve time on equipment using the CoreResearch@Duke system.  SMIF bills you based on your actual usage of the instrument or lab. However, the system defaults to your reserved time for billing if you do not start/stop your reservation manually. This also means that you will be billed for your reservation if you do not show up, unless you cancel the reservation ahead of time.

The billing cycle runs from the 1st day of the month to the last day of the month. Invoices for user charges are emailed monthly to the PI and Grant Manager for Duke users, and to the customer contacts provided to SMIF for external users.