Project Info

Fabrication of nanostencils for resist-free lithography

Serena Eley | serenaeley@mines.edu

Conventional methods for micro/nanofabrication of superconducting microwave circuits involve using resists and etchants that produce contamination that contributes to microwave losses. Development of resist-free fabrication techniques, such as nanostencil lithography, could enable production of microwave circuits with unprecedentedly lower losses. Nanostencil lithography involves fabricating a device by depositing material through a physical mask containing a patterned aperture (a nanostencil). The process is simple, rapid, and clean: it does not require exposing the actual device to acids, bases, reactive plasmas, resists, and high temperatures.

In this project, students will use lithographic techniques and etching to fabricate silicon nitride (SiNx) membrane nanostencils designed to pattern coplanar waveguides.

More Information

• Villanueva, G., Vazquez-Mena, O., van den Boogaart, M. A. F., Sidler, K., Pataky, K., Savu, V. & Brugger, J. Etching of sub-micrometer structures through Stencil. Microelectron. Eng. 85, 1010–1014 (2008).
• Brugger, J., Berenschot, J. W., Kuiper, S., Nijdam, W., Otter, B. & Elwenspoek, M. Resistless patterning of sub-micron structures by evaporation through nanostencils. Microelectron. Eng. 53, 403–405 (2000).
• Jain, T., Aernecke, M., Liberman, V. & Karnik, R. High Resolution Fabrication of Nanostructures using Controlled Proximity Nanostencil Lithography. Appl. Phys. Lett. 104, 083117 (2014).

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