Aluminum air bridges for superconducting quantum devices realized using a single step electron-beam lithography process

  1. Noah Janzen,
  2. Michal Kononenko,
  3. Shaun Ren,
  4. and Adrian Lupascu
In superconducting quantum devices, air bridges enable increased circuit complexity and density as well as mitigate the risk of microwave loss arising from mode mixing. We implement
aluminum air bridges using a simple process based on single-step electron-beam gradient exposure. The resulting bridges have sizes ranging from 20 μm to 100 μm, with a yield exceeding 99 % for lengths up to 36 μm. When used to connect ground planes in coplanar waveguide resonators, the induced loss contributed to the system is negligible, corresponding to a reduction of the quality factor exceeding 1.0×108 per bridge. The bridge process is compatible with Josephson junctions and allows for the simultaneous creation of low loss bandages between superconducting layers.