Effect of partial pressure on the internal stress and the crystallographic structure of r.f. reactive sputtered Ti-N films

Abstract

The influence of nitrogen partial pressure ( P N2) and argon partial pressure ( P Ar) on internal stress, crystallographic structure, and resistivity have been investigated for reactively sputtered Ti-N films in order to get some insight into the influence of deposition parameters. Ti-N films were deposited onto glass substrates by r.f. reactive magnetron sputtering using a plasma emission monitoring control system. The r.f. power applied was kept constant at 300 W during deposition, and the substrate temperature was room temperature. When P Ar is 0.4 Pa and P N2 is 1 × 10 −3 Pa or higher, films deposited become single phase of TiN, although preferential orientations of films change with P N2. Ti-N films deposited at a P N2 of 2–6 × 10 −3 Pa become a gold color, and the resistivity becomes minimum. The internal stress of deposited Ti-N films changes as a function of both argon and nitrogen partial pressure, and films deposited at a low P Ar tend to have high compressive stress. The internal stress is also related to preferred orientation of films. Films having the (001) preferential orientation show higher compressive stress than those having the (111) preferred orientation.