  The effect of thermal annealing on the properties of Al-AlOx-Al single
electron tunneling transistors is reported. After treatment of the devices by
annealing processes in forming gas atmosphere at different temperatures and for
different times, distinct and reproducible changes of their resistance and
capacitance values were found. According to the temperature regime, we observed
different behaviors as regards the resistance changes, namely the tendency to
decrease the resistance by annealing at T = 200 degree C, but to increase the
resistance by annealing at T = 400 degree C. We attribute this behavior to
changes in the aluminum oxide barriers of the tunnel junctions. The good
reproducibility of these effects with respect to the changes observed allows
the proper annealing treatment to be used for post-process tuning of tunnel
junction parameters. Also, the influence of the annealing treatment on the
noise properties of the transistors at low frequency was investigated. In no
case did the noise figures in the 1/f-regime show significant changes.
