The development of equipment for the fabrication of thin film superconductor and nano structures

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The nano-age is more about the mesoscopic phenomena, than those occurring at molecularand atomic level, which have been studied by chemists and physicists for morethan a hundred years. Nanotechnology is currently one of the most active fields beingexplored in many different disciplines by many scientists across the world. In thisresearch field, it is imperative to continually create more effective and superior methodsto build smaller and smaller electronic devices, circuits and sensors. Technologyis being improved continually and, specifcally at our university, there was a need toimprove our device manufacturing facility. The aim of this work was to create a newsputtering system, build a dry etching system and to make modifications to upgradeexisting equipment. This work has been done to produce nano structures or devicesand, most importantly, to save costs.New systems and equipment have been built to keep up with the progress in this field.In order to understand the significance of the different types of equipment used inthe fabrication of thin film superconductor layers, an overview will be given of thecomplete process of manufacturing a patterned Josephson junction. The apparatusused will be described and critically analyzed, whereby the shortfalls in design will behighlighted and improvements shown. Some of the equipment, such as the plasma laserdeposition system, the lithography system and the test facility existed before and hasbeen modified. Newly designed systems were built to further improve the quality ofour thin film superconductors; these include the inverted cylindrical magnetron (ICM)sputtering system, the argon ion mill and the incandescent substrate heater.Finally, the results of the improved thin films and structures will be shown. To summarize:The entire process was analyzed and upgraded, resulting in an improved devicemanufacturing facility.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University