Growth of Tantalum Nitride Films on Si by Radio Frequency Reactive Sputtering: Effect of  N 2 / Ar Flow Ratio

Abstract

Tantalum nitride (TaN) films are deposited on silicon substrates by radio frequency reactive sputtering of Ta in N2/normalAr gas mixtures. The deposition rate, chemical composition, and crystalline microstructure are investigated by cross‐sectional transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy, respectively. Those results indicate that the deposition rate, film composition, and microstructure correlate well with the N2/normalAr flow ratio. The deposition mechanism and kinetic model which control the film characteristics are presented as well. © 1999 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.

Effects of nitrogen composition on the resistivity of reactively sputtered TaN thin films

“…1 eV corresponds to the Ta4 f 5 / 2 peak of the N‐rich Ta–N phase . This trend has been observed previously . It is consistent with the changes of phases in the films observed from XRD patterns, from Ta and hexagonal Ta 2 N to TaN and finally toward N‐rich phases.…”

Structure and mechanical properties of (TiVCr)N coatings prepared by energetic bombardment sputtering with different nitrogen flow ratios

“…Therefore, the resputtering effect becomes relatively greater and consequently induces renucleation. As a result, the grain size continues to decrease with increasing R N [51]. Fig.…”

“…As a result, the (2 0 0) grains consumed all other grains and straight, dome-like columns without any evolutionary V-shaped overgrowth formed the film [48]. However, the relatively larger resputtering effect increased the renucleation rate of the growing films, which in turn, inhibited grain growth [49][50][51].…”

Synthesis and characterization of tantalum nitride films prepared by cathodic vacuum arc technique

“…The reason for the decrease could be attributed to a decreasing number of opening sites on the Ta target surface for sputtering. Many sites of the target are occupied by nitrogen atoms, N 2 , or TaN compounds when the N 2 partial pressure increases [13,14]. Fig.…”