Fabrication of C54-TiSi2 Thin Films Using Cathodic Arc Deposition and Rapid Thermal Annealing

Abstract

AbstractDue to its low electrical resistivity and high thermal stability, C54-TiSi2 thin films can be used in some MEMS application, such as RF MEMS, to reduce RC delay and improve dynamic performance. In this paper, TiSi2 thin films have been prepared for the first time by using cathodic arc deposition to study the impact of energetic ion bombardment on the film microstructure and subsequent C49-C54 phase transformation during annealing. TiSi2 compound was used as the cathode and a substrate bias was varied to control kinetic energy of the ions during the film growth. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and transmission electron microscopy were utilized to characterize the film composition and microstructure. The composition of the resultant TiSix thin films varies from x=2.4 to x=1.4 when the substrate bias was varied from floating to –200V. The as-deposited TiSix films are amorphous under no substrate heating and a phase separation at nano scale with inhomogeneous distribution of Ti and Si atoms was observed within the amorphous phase. Si atoms are seen to segregate on the boundary of Ti-rich domains and the domain size increased with the substrate bias. For a 90nm-thick TiSi2 film deposited on a SiO2/Si substrate, kinetics of the C49-C54 phase transformation was studied by measuring the change of film resistivity upon rapid thermal annealing. It was found that the C49-C54 phase transition temperature is higher (>900°C) for the arc-deposited TiSi2 thin films compared to evaporated and sputtered films and the activation energy for the transformation was calculated to be 6.1±0.2eV.