MORPHOLOGY AND STRUCTURE OF ALUMINUM NITRIDE THIN-FILMS ON GLASS SUBSTRATES

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films are deposited on Coming 7059 glass a t low substrate temperature by reactive RF magnetron sputtering. The s tructural and morphological characterizations are found to be sensitiv e to deposition conditions such as sputtering pressure, RF power, subs trate temperature and N-2 concentration. A highly oriented AlN (002) p lane parallel to the substrate surface is identified by X-ray diffract ion (XRD) measurement and a dense pebble-like surface texture is obser ved by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The cross-sectional SEM mic rograph shows that well-aligned columnar structures with preferred ori entation along the c-axis exist in the AlN thin film. However, a selec ted-area diffraction (SAD) pattern shows that some other planes exist in the deposited film, though only a hexagonal AlN (002) plane is obta ined by XRD.