Effect on Silicon Nitride thin Films Properties at Various Powers of RF Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Silicon nitride thin films have numerous applications in microelectronics and optoelectronics fields due to their unique properties. In this work, silicon nitride thin films were produced using radio frequency (R.F.) magnetron sputtering technique at various sputtering powers. The prepared thin films were characterized with XRD, FE-SEM, FTIR, surface profiler, AFM and spectral reflectance techniques for structure, surface morphology, chemical bonding information, growth rate, surface roughness and optical properties. The results showed that silicon nitride thin films were amorphous in nature. The films were smooth and densely packed with no voids or cracks at the surface. FTIR characterization informed about Si-N bonding existence which confirmed the formation of silicon nitride films. The sputtering power showed the impetus effect on growth rate, surface roughness and optical properties of produced films.

Thin films of silicon nitride deposited at room temperature by non-reactive magnetron sputtering: radiofrequency power and deposition time influence on the formation of α-Si3N4 and its optical properties

“…Sputtering techniques have some advantages over CVD techniques; therefore, they are a potential alternative to grow SiN X thin films at low temperatures and without hydrogen contamination [16,23,[26][27][28][29][30][31]. The sputtering techniques do not need toxic or volatile gases to deposit different materials.…”

“…The sputtering techniques do not need toxic or volatile gases to deposit different materials. They present low deposition rates (D R ), especially when low RF powers are supplied [26,32], and it allows for working with low substrate temperatures [18,[29][30][31][32][33]. However, the academic community inclines to study the growth of these films at temperatures high above ambient to improve their properties [14,18,23,24,31] because obtaining sputtered SiN X thin films with significant properties is a complex task at room temperature.…”

“…Various research groups have studied the influence of parameters such as pressure [26], gas flow [14,16,18,27,28,32], bias voltage, and electrical or radiofrequency power (RF-P) [14,26,29,34,35] on the optical and electrical properties of SiN X thin films grown with diverse substrate temperatures. In all these studies, it has been observed that the final properties of SiN X films strongly depend on the deposition parameters used [16,26,28,29,33].…”

“…Various research groups have studied the influence of parameters such as pressure [26], gas flow [14,16,18,27,28,32], bias voltage, and electrical or radiofrequency power (RF-P) [14,26,29,34,35] on the optical and electrical properties of SiN X thin films grown with diverse substrate temperatures. In all these studies, it has been observed that the final properties of SiN X films strongly depend on the deposition parameters used [16,26,28,29,33]. However, the influence of radiofrequency power on the optical and microstructural properties of silicon nitride films is a poorly explored field, especially when using a Si 3 N 4 target without reactive gases and at room temperature.…”

Effects of Annealing on the Structural and Optical Properties of V2O5 Thin Films Prepared by RF Sputtering for Humidity Sensor Application

“…In interactive sputtering, the processed gases, such as oxygen, are added with the inert working gases, such as argon. The major advantage of DC sputtering lies in high deposition rate, whereas in the case of rf sputtering, various types of targets can be used, such as semiconductors and insulators [11]. In this paper, the effects of annealing temperature on the structural and optical properties of V 2 O 5 thin films was studied by using radio frequency sputtering technique on Si and glass substrates.…”