A model is given for the stress change in a thin film on a thick substrate during annealing. It takes into account temperature changes, volume changes, viscous flow, and anelastic relaxation occurring in the film. The stress change in amorphous Mo/Si multilayer films deposited on Si single-crystal substrates was obtained from in situ wafer-curvature measurements during annealing at temperatures below the glass temperature. The thickness change and the interdiffusion coefficient were obtained from the position and the intensity of the first-order multilayer x-ray reflection. The unconstrained volume change was derived from the measured stress and thickness changes. The free-volume model for amorphous solids has been used to interpret the interdiffusion in and the volume change of the amorphous Mo/Si multilayers. The stress change as it occurred during isothermal annealing was explained by freevolume annihilation, viscous flow, and anelastic relaxation. If anisotropy of the volume change is accepted, the stress change could also be described with free-volume annihilation and viscous flow alone.The product of the experimentally observed viscosity and diffusion coefficient for amorphous Mo/Si multilayers was compared to the value expected from the free-volume-model-based equivalent of the Stokes-Einstein relation.

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The elastic constants and thermal expansion coefficient of C49 TiSi2 thin films have been investigated by in situ curvature measurement during heat treatment and ex situ x-ray diffraction measurements. The C49 TiSi2 compound was formed from Ti-Si multilayers deposited on monocrystalline silicon and sapphire substrates. The films were polycrystalline without any evident texture. Young’s modulus (142 GPa), Poisson’s ratio (0.27), and the thermal expansion coefficient (10.9×10−6 K−1) have been determined. Note that these values are averages over random crystal orientations. Directly after formation C49 TiSi2 films exhibit tensile stress. This stress relaxes considerably above 375 °C. Below this temperature the thermal expansion is found to be independent of the state of relaxation of the C49 TiSi2 film.

Titanium silicon multilayers have been produced by alternating sputter deposition. The stress in the as-deposited layers is a function of the period of the multilayer structure. The multilayers were subsequently annealed to form silicide films. From stress and strain measurements on these films Poisson’s ratio is determined. After annealing, the films exhibit a tensile stress which can be attributed to the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between substrate and silicide film.

Integrated circuit fabrication consists of many processing steps: e.g. lithography, etching, implantation and metallization. Some of these processes are combined with thermal processing. Heat treatments require special attention because previous fabrication steps may be influenced: e.g. dopant profiles may be deteriorated. The amount of interference of an annealing step with a former process is determined by the ratio of the reaction rates (and hence by the difference in activation energies).