Oxygen Incorporation in Reactive-Sputter-Deposited TiN Films: Influence of the Metal to O2 Gas Flux Ratio

Abstract

The incorporation of oxygen impurities under ambient environment conditions during reactive sputter deposition of titanium nitride (TiN)ˆlms has been studied. TiNˆlms, prepared by DC sputtering of a Ti metal target in 100z N 2 at 1 Pa in an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) sputtering apparatus, were essentially free from oxygen. When oxygen was intentionally introduced into the vacuum chamber, an impurity level of a few atomic percent was obtained at a partial pressure of 3×10 -4 Pa, but the percentage increased rapidly to 10-20 at.z when the partial pressure was 1×10 -3 Pa or above. It is shown that the increase in the oxygen incorporation is not well explained by the oxygen impingement rate calculated from the partial pressure. We demonstrate that the impurity concentration is related to the ratio of the number of oxygen atoms introduced into the chamber to the number of Ti atoms sputtered from the target. This suggests that oxygen gettering by Ti atoms deposited on the chamber wall signiˆcantly reduces the oxygen pressure during deposition and that oxygen incorporation in theˆlm is governed primarily by the total amount of sputtered metal.

Fabrication and evaluation of suspended Micro‐heater using TiN

“…This is because film thickness of TiN and SiO 2 has not been optimized; further study is necessary to improve mechanical strength by using thicker films and to optimize conditions for film stress relaxation. In addition, TiN film deposited in this study contains about 20% oxygen, which is likely to impair the film hardness; therefore, degree of vacuum in film deposition 12 must be improved.…”