Thickness uniformity, electrical properties, and stress of sputtered TiN thin films

Abstract The development of microelectronic and semiconductor devices has put forward higher requirements for the growth quality of TiN thin films. In this paper, TiN thin films were grown using magnetron sputtering technology on 50°C monocrystalline silicon substrates. The effects of preparation factors (sputtering power and argon/nitrogen ratio) on TiN films were studied by X-ray diffractometer, X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, four-probe instrument, and stress measuring instrument. The experimental results show that the sputtering power and argon/nitrogen flow ratio have important effects on the thickness distribution. As the sputtering power increases, the surface of TiN thin films becomes flat and smooth. Meanwhile, the reduction of the argon/nitrogen flow ratio was helpful in improving the growth quality of the films. Using optimized preparation process parameters, uniformly high-compressive-stressed and high-resistivity TiN films could be obtained at lower argon/nitrogen flow rates.