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Effect of deposition conditions and post deposition anneal on reactively sputtered titanium nitride thin films

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Nilhil Ponon, Dan Appleby, Dr Erhan Arac, Dr Peter King, Srinivas Ganti, Dr Kelvin Kwa, Professor Anthony O'Neill

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

Titanium nitride (TiNx) was deposited by reactive sputtering using a titanium target in a nitrogen ambient. Nitrogen flow rate during deposition was varied in order to investigate its effect on film resistivity. Conductivity is found to improve with increasing nitrogen content. Films were then annealed, varying the time and temperature of the anneal. Resistivity was found to decrease with longer annealing time and higher temperature during post deposition annealing. TiNx films showed good thermal and electrical stability upon annealing and did not show any silicon diffusion. It was found that film orientation can influence the resistivity, with [111] oriented films more resistive than [200] oriented films. Moreover, re-crystallization effects brought on by post deposition annealing cause the resistivity to decrease. Films deposited above 20% nitrogen flow rates during deposition were all stoichiometric TiN. However, TiNx deposited at very high nitrogen flow rate was found to be electrically, thermally and morphologically more stable than the ones deposited at low nitrogen flow rates.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Ponon NK, Appleby DJR, Arac E, King PJ, Ganti S, Kwa KSK, O'Neill A

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Thin Solid Films

Year: 2015

Volume: 578

Pages: 31-37

Print publication date: 02/03/2015

Online publication date: 10/02/2015

Acceptance date: 03/02/2015

Date deposited: 27/02/2015

ISSN (print): 0040-6090

ISSN (electronic): 1879-2731

Publisher: Elsevier BV

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2015.02.009

DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2015.02.009


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
Intel Corporation Ltd
EP/H023666/1UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
EP/H023666/1EPSRC

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