An automated chemical vapor deposition setup for 2D materials

Abstract

Chemical vapour deposition (CVD) provides a versatile and scalable route to synthesize various 2D materials. Lowering the barrier for access, customization, and cost of CVD equipment will benefit a large and multidisciplinary research community. We report an open-source and automated CVD setup which can be built incrementally to cover a large parameter space of CVD growth. Extensions are also discussed. The setup was validated by CVD graphene growth and characterization on Cu foils. The software controller forms a crucial part of the system. Its plug-in based approach for devices and abstraction of interactions as structured text, enables easy automation, extension, and accessibility. These features also allow the same controller core to be used for control of diverse laboratory equipment, of which we provide a couple of examples. Together, the hardware and software design provides an easy and versatile package for CVD setup, which can also be a starting point for several other automated instruments.

Keywords

• CVD
• Automation
• 2D materials