TANTALUM NITRIDE FILMS AS RESISTORS ON CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITED DIAMOND SUBSTRATES

Tantalum nitride films were reactive sputter deposited onto chemical v apor deposited (CVD)-diamond self-standing thick layers, to be used as resistors for microelectronic applications. The TaN films had excelle nt morphology and were very stable through heating cycles at temperatu res up to 400-degrees-C for a few hours. Post-deposition sintering of the films at temperatures up to 300-degrees-C stabilized the film resi stance at values in the range of 75-85 OMEGA. The deposited film was l ater patterned with photoresist and dry etched, at rates of up to 70 n m min-1 and the resulting features served as masks for further self-al igned etching processes of the underlying CVD-diamond layer.