Notice of NIST's Intent to Negotiate on Sole Source Basis for Software Synopsys Atomistix ToolKit (ATK) 3-year license

Notice Type: Pre-Solicitation
Response Date: 08/27/2018 10:00 am Eastern
Archiving Policy: Automatic, 15 days after response due date
Base Notice: Notice of NIST's Intent to Negotiate on Sole Source Basis for Software Synopsys Atomistix ToolKit (ATK) 3-year license
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to negotiate on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b) (1), with Synopsys, Inc., located at 690 E Middlefield Rd., Mountain View, CA. 94043-4010 (https://www.synopsys.com/) to purchase 3-year software license for Synopsys Atomistix ToolKit.
The mission of NIST's, Materials Science and Engineering Division (MSED), Thermodynamics and Kinetics Group (TKG) is to resolve the outstanding challenges in material property prediction as well as search for new materials with technological applications or for way to optimize the utilization of currently known materials. The goal is to develop measurement science and data that prove of significant value to industry. Among the phenomena investigated, one that is of relevancy to industry is the understanding of transport properties of nanoelectronic devises as a function of material, structure, phase, degree of contamination and so on.

In order to understand the magnetic and electrons transport properties of topological insulators MSED needs to perform transport property calculations. TKG utilizes one software tool, the QuantumWise Atomistic ToolKit (ATK) to assist in calculating the data. The software model transports properties (I-V curves, conductance, contact resistance, spin current, transistor characteristics, tunnel magneto-resistance) using density Functional Theory and Tight-Binding computational approaches. NIST currently owns two licenses for this software; however, these licenses must be upgraded and maintained annually, as new capabilities, speed ups etc. are continually introduced in the software. Keeping up with new software developments is necessary for NIST to maintain its world-leading position in understanding and discovering and developing new, technologically important, materials, as well as in guiding the designing and interpretation of experiments in nanoelectronic, that could provide industry with state-of-the-art information.

The sole source justification is based on the fact that this is the only software compatible with the already developed bank of scripts and codes to set up ballistic transport simulations, run them, harvest and process the data. The upgraded software must be compatible with the current, already own version of the QuantumWise Atomistic ToolKit (ATK) software so that all the scripts and processing codes we have developed over the years can continue to be used. Synopsys, Inc. is the sole vendor of the software package QuantumATK.

Market research, found that no third-party vendors capable of meeting the requirement.

The resulting purchase order will be a Firm Fixed Price purchase order. The NAICS Code is 511210 with a size standard of 38.5 million dollars.

No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, interested parties who regard themselves as capable of fulfilling these requirements are invited to submit responses to the Government for consideration. Responses received by 10:00 AM ET on August 27, 2018, will be considered by the Government.

Inquiry POCs:
Indira.Scott@nist.gov Primary
Wendy.Paulo@nist.gov Secondary
National Institutes of Standards and Technologies NIST
Acquisition Management Division (AMD)
100 Bureau Dr. Mail Stop 1640
Gaithersburg, MD. 20899-1640