Yale Cleanroom Facilities

Equipment policies

Precious metals

Purchase of precious metals (e.g., gold, platinum, and palladium) is the responsibility of the research group. It is not supplied by the cleanroom.

Soft cap policy

Starting FY24, the Cleanroom policy has been updated. Groups will receive an 80% discount once the group usage fee exceeds $50,000 for the Cleanroom and $20,000 for YINQE. These caps are separate, and the discounts are applied individually for each facility. The usage fee calculation will reset at the beginning of each fiscal year.

Starting FY24:

Only group soft caps will apply.
Cleanroom group cap: $50,000.
YINQE group cap: $20,000.
An 80% discount will be applied above each cap.
The usage fee calculation resets at the beginning of each fiscal year.

Before FY24:

Individual cap: $10,000.
Group cap: $100,000.
Joint YINQE/Cleanroom discount applied.
An 80% discount was applied above the cap.
The usage fee was calculated from the first use.

Operating expenses for the cleanroom are recovered through the combination of hourly charges to the user community and subsidies from Yale University. All access is tracked through the Facility Online Manager (FOM) (requires Yale network access).

Access and use policies

A detailed list of policies is included in the Cleanroom User Handbook.

New chemicals

Any user wishing to introduce chemicals to the cleanroom must first present an SDS to a staff member for evaluation and display an active knowledge of the chemical hazards. Approved chemicals may be brought into the cleanroom by staff members only.

Visitor access

Anyone not qualified to enter the cleanroom is considered a visitor. Upon the approval of cleanroom staff, a qualified cleanroom user may act as a host to bring a visitor in for the purpose of observation only.

After hours

The cleanroom operates Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM. All other times are considered after hours and are restricted to users with over thirty hours of Cleanroom time logged with no safety incidents.

External customers

An external customer is any non-Yale researcher who has obtained the approval of the School of Engineering & Applied Science Business Office.

Undergraduates

Undergraduate access is granted on a case-by-case basis and must be under the supervision of a senior researcher or instructor when working in the Cleanroom.

Discipline

Instances of user misconduct are evaluated and dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Consequences range from a warning and notice delivered to your PI, to permanent suspension of cleanroom access.

For publications, recognition of support from the Yale Cleanroom Facilities as well as individual staff contributions may be formatted as follows:

• Acknowledgment: This work was made possible by the West Campus Cleanroom, a core facility supported by the Office of the Provost of Yale University.
• We’d like to thank [staff member] for [service or other contribution].

To share a publication on the cleanroom web page, provide a copy to Yeongjae Shin.