In this paper, we report on investigation concerning the substrate-dependent thermal conductivity (k) of Aluminum Nitride (AlN) thin-films processed at low temperature by reactive magnetron sputtering. The thermal conductivity of AlN films grown at low temperature (<200 °C) on single-crystal silicon (Si) and amorphous silicon nitride (SiN) with thicknesses ranging from 100 nm to 4000 nm was measured with the transient hot-strip technique. The k values for AlN films on SiN were found significantly lower than those on Silicon consistently with their microstructures revealed by X-ray diffraction, high resolution scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The change in k was due to the thermal boundary resistance found to be equal to 10 × 10−9 Km2W−1 on SiN against 3.5 × 10−9 Km2W−1 on Si. However, the intrinsic thermal conductivity was determined with a value as high as 200 Wm−1K−1 whatever the substrate.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.