High-Throughput Nanogap Formation Using Single Ramp Feedback Control

We demonstrate a technique for simultaneously fabricating arrays of electromigrated nanogaps using a single-ramp feedback-controlled voltage clamp. The parallel formation is achieved by controlling the applied bias with a voltage clamp directly adjacent to a nanogap array containing low-impedance shunts. Self-balancing of the electromigration permits the two voltage leads to fix the applied voltage across all the forming nanogaps simultaneously. This single-ramp feedback-controlled voltage clamp method is at least a 100 times faster than previous work utilizing computer feedback control of parallel nanojunctions and also circumvents the deleterious thermal runaway that occurs in the conventional single-ramp technique.