Robotic chip-scale nanofabrication for superior consistency

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 that 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 providing a path toward industrial-level consistency in a research setting.