Fees Overview and Policies

This page summarizes the fee ranges and policies charged to internal and external users. All current and future rates can be found at https://nemo.nano.upenn.edu/fee_schedule and supersede any stated rates on this page. Internal users are students, post-docs, staff, faculty or anyone employed by the University of Pennsylvania — all others are external users. External users are defined as academic, government or industry/corporate:

  • External Academic users belong to any credited post-secondary academic degree-offering institution not managed by the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Government users belong to the public sector which are government ran entities such as a Department of Energy (DOE) research lab or similar.
  • Industry/Corporate users belong to private sector organizations that include small companies (less than 50 full-time employees) or large companies (50 or more full-time employees). Startup employees are not considered government users even if the startup’s partial or whole funding source may be a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant, Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant or any grant issued by any local, state/provincial, federal or foreign government entity.

New Policy Terms effective July 1, 2025: 

  • Peak hours are defined as Monday through Friday, 9 am to 7 pm.
  • Off-peak hours are defined as Monday through Friday, 7 pm to 9 am, and all-day Saturday and Sunday.
  • During peak hours, a $5 minimum charge will apply to tools and lab areas, where applicable, across all three cores. Exceptions include spinners (SPN-XX), metrology (MET-XX), and wet bench sonicators. See https://nemo.nano.upenn.edu/fee_schedule
  • Off-Peak Advantages 
    • A nominal 15% discounted rate is in effect for tool and lab area access.
    • Waiver of the $5 minimum charge per tool or lab area login.

Quattrone Nanofabrication Facility

Effective July 1, 2025:

  Internal/External Academic Users  
  Government Users Industry/Corporate Users

Cleanroom / Packaging Lab /
Soft Materials

   
Door Charge $34/hr to $39/hr $66/hr to $77/hr
Equipment Charges Range $0/hr to $165/hr Range $0/hr to $495/hr
Cap – Tool and Lab Use $7500/semester/user Not available
Staff Rates $55/hr $150/hr

The internal and external academic rate policy caps usage (both door/lab and tool charges) in the cleanroom/soft lithography together to $7500 per semester (July-Dec and Jan-Jun) per user per PI. After this cap has been reached, a user can incur an additional $30k in charges without incurring any cost to their PI. Afterward, the regular academic rate is applied for additional charges that exceed the $37,500 threshold and will be invoiced accordingly.  This cap resets every semester. There is no cap structure for industry/corporate users.

Individual Tool fees are available at: https://nemo.nano.upenn.edu/fee_schedule/


Nanoscale Characterization Facility

Effective July 1, 2025:

  Internal/External Academic Users  
  Government Users Industry/Corporate Users
Equipment Charges $10/hr to $77/hr $26/hr to $462/hr
Staff Rates $55 $150

Individual Tool fees are available at: https://nemo.nano.upenn.edu/fee_schedule/


Scanning Probe Facility

Effective July 1, 2025:

  Internal/External Academic Users  
  Government Users Industry/Corporate Users
Equipment Charges $29/hr to $39/hr $510/hr to $600/hr
Staff Rates $55 $150

Individual Tool fees are available at: https://nemo.nano.upenn.edu/fee_schedule/