Robotic chip-scale nanofabrication for superior consistency

TL;DR

This paper presents a robotic system for nanofabrication that significantly improves process consistency in academic research, demonstrated through resist development of Josephson junctions.

Contribution

It introduces a robotic arm automation for low-volume, high-stakes nanofabrication tasks, achieving near-industrial consistency in a research environment.

Findings

Robotic process achieves ~2% resistance spread across chips.

Human operators show ~7% resistance spread, less consistent.

Robotics reduces operator-dependent variability.

Abstract

Unlike the rigid, high-volume automation found in industry, academic research requires process flexibility that has historically relied on variable manual operations. This hinders the fabrication of advanced, complex devices. We propose to address this gap by automating these low-volume, high-stakes tasks using a robotic arm to improve process control and consistency. As a proof of concept, we deploy this system for the resist development of Josephson junction devices. A statistical comparison of the process repeatability shows the robotic process achieves a resistance spread across chips close to 2%, a significant improvement over the ~7% spread observed from human operators, validating robotics as a solution to eliminate operator-dependent variability and a path towards industrial-level consistency in a research setting.