Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) (10%)

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are both a practical method of laboratory R&D documentation as well as a legal requirement for University of Washington laboratories. With proper formatting and content, an SOP can easily serve both functions.
SOPs are a required part of the Laboratory Safety Manual (LSM) for each laboratory on the UW campus. The Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) maintains a master LSM online, and section 6 deals with SOPs - their requirements, how to create them, their proper format, and what information to include in them.
Use the above link to access the entire LSM from the EH&S web site. Below are a few of the more pertinent sections and appendices pertaining to SOPs which are directly downloadable .pdf documents:
Section 3: Chemical Waste Management
Section 6: Standard Operating Procedures
Appendix D: Example Standard Operating Procedures
Appendix E: Checklists
Appendix G: Gloves
Appendix H: Particularly Hazardous Substances
As section 6 of the LSM explains, there are two basic forms of the SOP. If the procedure does not involve any particularly hazardous substances, then it only needs to include the first eight elements shown below. The EE MicroFab Lab does not conduct any animal research, so element #8 is always left blank for us.
#1. Process Identification
#2. List of Chemicals Involved
#3. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
#4. Engineering / Ventilation Controls
#5. Special Handling Procedures & Storage Requirements
#6. Spill and Accident Procedures
#7. Waste Disposal
#8. Special Precautions for Animal Use (if applicable)
If particularly hazardous substances are used, then the SOP must additionally include the next three elements:
#9. Approval Required
#10. Decontamination
#11. Designated Area
The first step is thus to determine if particulary hazardous substances are involved in the procedure. These are listed explicitly by name and Chemical Abstracts Services Registration Number (CASRN) in Appendix H. While this list contains the usual suspects, it also includes some surprises. For example, aluminum [7429-90-5], copper [7440-47-3], and silica [14808-60-7] are listed as particularly hazardous substances! This is because these specific CASRNs refer to dust or powder forms which can be trapped in the lungs, and which are, indeed, particularly hazardous substances. For example, silica dust is what is responsible for silicosis of the lungs. Normal, large chunks or pieces of aluminum or copper metal, or silica (SiO2; fused quartz) are not hazardous in forms other than dust or powder, and they carry a different CASRN. So just be certain that you are referencing the correct CASRN for the substances that are involved in the process. The form of the substance is just as important as the chemical composition.
Section 6 of the LSM also explains that SOPs can be written up (1) by process, (2) by individual chemical, or (3) by class of chemical. EH&S does provide an SOP Word.doc template; however, this is not recommended for the EE MicroFab Lab, because the fill-in-the-box format does not provide sufficient space for any useful guidelines or procedures that would pertain to microfabrication. The better approach is to write up the procedure in a step-by-step manner, and then add in additional paragraphs or headings to insure that all of the required elements (either #1 - #8, or #1 - #11, above) are addressed. Step-by-step procedures are by far the best format for SOPs used in microfabrication, because they can be followed like a recipe with a checklist, and their use better documents the real manner in which the procedure is carried out and prevents mistakes if the procedural details are left to pure memory or experience.
Here are a few sample SOPs that were written up by students in previous classes of EE-527. These are not perfect, but generally pretty good examples of the appropriate level of detail and also addressing the EH&S requirements.
SOP for AZ-1512 Photolithography: Wang & Lugo, 2009. 
SOP for Oxidation Furnace: Lombrozo, 2009.
Look at other SOPs to get a feel for the flexibility that exists in their construction, but don't just copy and paste when constructing your own. Well written SOPs (from scratch) are usually much better at teaching others the nuances of the process. The inclusion of helpful hints and troubleshooting information is highly encouraged! Try to make the SOP a useful document that not only records your own laboratory practice, but which also conveys this information to others who will then benefit from your experience. The information in the SOP will also greatly help when you need to look back and recall the specifics of a process, perhaps months or years later, when you are writing a paper or dissertation on the research.

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