Process–microstructure–properties relationship during formation of AlN layers by physical vapour deposition

Abstract

The relationship of processing, microstructure and properties during deposition of AlN layers on glass substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering was investigated. The AlN films were prepared with two working gas mixtures: 3 : 1 and 1 : 1 Ar/N 2 volume ratios; three working pressure values: 0 . 2, 0 . 5 and 0 . 8 Pa and two target to substrate distances: 2 . 5 and 3 cm. The resulting films were analysed by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis and X-ray diffractometry. In the ranges of processing variables studied, film growth morphology and orientation were mainly affected by working pressure, where deviations from expected behaviour were attributed to process instabilities. No significant influence of gas mixture composition or substrate to target distance was detected in the ranges studied. The effect of pressure was rationalised in terms of the associated energy of the Ar ion film bombardment, which was expected to cause only surface film modifications owing to its low estimated values, but enough to produce structural changes. The development of residual stresses and their effect on hardness and fracture behaviour of the films were mostly influenced by the type of columnar growth and film thickness.

A critical review of copper electroless deposition on glass substrates for microsystems packaging applications

“…The interfacial forces between the metal film and substrate and the mechanical interlocking of metal particles are the two main factors contributing to the adhesion improvement for H 2 SO 4 /K 2 Cr 2 O 7 treated substrates. The mechanical grinding did not improve the adhesion before acid etching (samples [19][20][21][22][23][24]. However, the polished/acid-etched samples showed higher adhesion values than the merely polished samples.…”

“…Several deposition techniques are used to deposit thin (<1 μm) and thick (>1 μm) copper films. Physicalvapour-deposition (PVD) processes [17][18][19][20], like sputtering [21][22][23][24][25] and electron beam evaporation [26][27][28][29], Chemical-vapour-deposition (CVD) [30][31][32][33][34], atomic layer deposition (ALD) [35][36][37][38] methods are used to deposit high-quality, defect-free, continuous films; however, the average thickness of deposited films is generally less than 1 μm. Electroplating is used in those applications where the thick blanket film is required or blind/through holes must be filled.…”

Characterisation of AlN nano thin films prepared by PLD

“…Among them, AlN thin films have broad application prospects in mechanical, microelectronic, optical and electronic components, surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices and high-frequency broadband communication devices [1,2]. Several physical vapour deposition (PVD) techniques such as ion beam deposition, cathode arc deposition and reactive sputtering have been utilised to prepare thin films [3,4], and a preliminary attempt was made to deposit TiN/AlN multilayer thin films by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) in our previous research work [5]. Tavsanoglu [6] prepared the AlN thin films on glass and Si (100) substrates successfully by plasma-enhanced reactive DC magnetron sputtering, and studied the effect of bias voltages on the structural, optical and morphological properties of the films, finding that the AlN in hexagonal (wurtzite) structure has been obtained for all the films.…”

Surface modification by multilayered Zn–Co alloy coatings

“…[5][6][7][8] There are different methods for producing CMMA coatings, e.g. physical vapour deposition, [9][10][11] chemical vapour deposition 12 and electrodeposition. 13 Electrolytically, such alloys can be obtained by either single bath technique (SBT), where deposition takes place in a plating solution containing ions of the alloy components, or double bath technique, where deposition is carried out from separate plating baths using a manual and automated transfer of the substrate from one bath to another.…”