Pricing of services
Types of Users
Foreign Companies (FC): companies which are not based in Portugal or have subsidiaries in Portugal.
Foreign Universites (FU): universities or non-profit research institutes which are not located in Portugal.
National Companies (NC): companies or research centers affiliated with companies which are located in Portugal.
National Universities (NU): universities, national laboratories or non-profit research institutes located in Portugal.
Project partners, collaborators, members of consortium: these are groups with whom we have common projects, have bilateral collaborations or are members of the INESC-MN consortium.
Calculation of Costs
The factors which contribute to the cost of using a particular piece of equipment are as follows:
Capital investment (I): This is the cost of a piece of equipment, depreciated over 10 years.
Maintenance (M): This is the yearly cost of maintaining the equipment including periodic technical intervention by trained technicians, consumable parts, gas, water and electricity consumption.
Cleanroom support (CS): This cost is associated with the cost of the cleanroom including depreciation, maintenance, consumable materials and regular services such as garment cleaning and waste disposal. This cost is added only to equipment located inside the cleanroom or in the grey area.
House nitrogen (N): This is the cost associated with the use of house nitrogen. The machines are weighted according to their relative use of nitrogen during processing. This cost is not added to the rates quoted for equipment which do not use nitrogen.
In the calculation of the price of equipment use for the different types of users, the difference comes from the amount of the capital depreciation which is charged. National universities are not charged the depreciation costs whereas international companies are charged the full depreciation cost (international universities and national companies are charged a fraction of this cost). The other costs associated with equipment use are charged equally for all types of users.
Table of Prices
These rates are for equipment use only and does not include materials such as silicon wafers or substrates. This should be supplied by the user or arranged separately.
These rates also do not include the cost of labor if an INESC MN technical staff member is involved in the operation of the machines. Process and packaging equipment must be operated by INESC-MN personnel. Characterization equipment can be operated by the users after they have been trained and approved for operation on the specific system by INESC MN personnel.
Process Equipment
Hourly Rate
Daily Rate
Characterization Equipment
This table lists prices of hourly use of characterization equipment. For extended use of characterization equipment a protocol must be defined with INESC MN on a case by case basis.
Microfluidic and Lab on Chip Equipment
Packaging Equipment
The dicing saw is charged on an hourly basis. All other equipment have a daily charge with a minimum of 1/2 day
Technical Staff Support
The rate for technical personnel support is: 65 €/hr