A fee-for-service structure is established to provide access to the BioMEMS Resource Center by the NIH investigators. The service components are divided into two general categories:

1. In-house services: The end-user will work at the BioMEMS Resource Center to make his or her own devices. When deemed necessary, the technical staff of the Resource Center will also be available to assist fellows or investigators to perform their work. Short training sessions (one to two days) will be organized during the year to provide hands-on experience. The charges for these services have been instituted to help to defray the cost of equipment services, maintenance and equipment upgrades. They are based on yearly expenditures incurred for lab supplies, equipment services, equipment contracts and equipment added parts and supplies. Charges are assessed by completed process; however, each step in a process is cost accounted and compared with above expenditures to get a fair estimate.
   
   
2. External services: BioMEMS Resource Center staff will manufacture and package BioMEMS devices upon specifications provided by the NIH investigators. In this case, extra charges for training and staff device fabrication will be applied.

   Samples of Current Charges for NIH investigators

   • Positive Resist $45 - Includes Silicon Wafer
   • Positive Resist $40 - Include Glass Slide
   • SU-8 Process $45 - Includes Silicon Wafer
   • SU-8 Process $35 - Include Glass Slide
   • PDMS Bonding $25 - From PDMS pouring to PDMS bonding

Since the inception of the Center for Engineering in Medicine in 1995, there have been a rapidly growing number of research projects utilizing the core microsystems facilities on an ad-hoc basis. Increasing demand (especially by non-engineer NIH-investigators) and the complexity of the projects provide a strong rationale for the NIH BioMEMS Resource Center.