Granted Patent B2

US 12,581,870 · App. 17/746,724 · Granted Mar 17, 2026

Inventors: Justin C. Hackley (Catonsville, MD); Patrick R. Warner (Hampstead, MD)

Assignee: NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION

H10N60/12G06N10/40H10N60/805H01B12/04

Abstract

Claims (18)

1 . A method of forming a Josephson Junction (JJ) device, the method comprising:

forming a photoresist material layer over a substrate to form a JJ structure;

patterning the photoresist material layer to form openings in the photoresist material layer and a photoresist bridge near a central region of the JJ structure;

performing a first angular superconducting deposition process on the JJ structure to form a plurality of superconductor bottom electrodes on the substrate;

performing an oxidation process to provide an oxidized top surface on the plurality of superconductor bottom electrodes;

performing a second angular superconducting deposition process on the JJ structure to form a plurality of superconductor top electrodes with an overlapping portion of one of the plurality of superconductor top electrodes overlapping one of the plurality of superconductor bottom electrodes with an oxidized top surface therebetween to form a JJ below the photoresist bridge near the central region of the JJ structure;

performing a dry oxidizing process under vacuum to form a protective oxide on the JJ; and

removing the photoresist material layer to provide a final resulting JJ structure.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the JJ is an aluminum/aluminum oxide/aluminum JJ, and both the first angular superconducting deposition process and the second angular superconducting deposition process are aluminum evaporation processes.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the forming a photoresist material layer comprises forming a first photoresist material layer over the substrate, and a second photoresist material layer over the first photoresist material layer, the first photoresist material layer being a lift-off resist material, and the second photoresist material layer being a standard photoresist material layer.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the JJ structure is an operating JJ structure and the JJ is an operating JJ, and further comprising forming a first hydrogen-trapping JJ structure having a first end coupled to a first end of the operating JJ structure and a second end coupled to a first superconductor wire, and a second hydrogen-trapping JJ structure having a first end coupled to a second end of the operating JJ structure and a second end coupled to a second superconductor wire, wherein the first hydrogen-trapping JJ structure include a first hydrogen-trapping JJ and the second hydrogen-trapping JJ structure includes a second hydrogen-trapping JJ, the first hydrogen-trapping JJ and the second second hydrogen-trapping JJ mitigates hydrogen diffusion into the operating JJ.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the first hydrogen-trapping JJ structure and the second hydrogen-trapping JJ structure are formed from the same sequential processes as the operating JJ structure.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the first hydrogen-trapping JJ, and the second hydrogen-trapping JJ each have a size that is greater than or equal to 100 times the size of the operating JJ.

7 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the operating JJ structure, the first hydrogen-trapping JJ structure and the second hydrogen-trapping JJ structure are formed concurrently with the same sequential processes as the operating JJ structure employing the same photoresist material.

8 . The method of claim 4 , depositing a first superconductor line, a second superconductor line, a third superconductor line and a fourth superconductor line, wherein the first hydrogen-trapping JJ structure has a first end connected to a first end of the operating JJ structure via the first superconductor line and a second end connected to the first superconductor wire via the second superconductor line, and a second hydrogen-trapping JJ structure having a first end connected to a second end of the operating JJ structure via the third superconductor line and a second end connected to the second superconductor wire via the fourth superconductor line.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the first superconductor line, the second superconductor line, the third superconductor line and the fourth superconductor line are formed from aluminum.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the first superconductor wire and the second superconductor wire are formed from niobium.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the performing the first angular superconducting deposition process on the JJ structure, performing the oxidation process to provide the oxidized top surface, performing the second angular superconducting deposition process on the JJ structure, and the performing the dry oxidizing process to form the protective oxide on the JJ is performed under the vacuum in a same processing chamber.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (16)