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

The influence of nitrogen partial pressure (P-N2) and argon partial pressur e (P-Ar) on internal stress, crystallographic structure, and resistivity ha ve been investigated for reactively sputtered Ti-N films in order to get so me insight into the influence of deposition parameters. Ti-N films were dep osited 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 x 10(-3) Pa or higher, film s 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 x 10(-3) Pa become a gold color, and the resistivity becomes minimum. The internal str ess of deposited Ti-N films changes as a function of both argon and nitroge n partial pressure, and films deposited at a low P-Ar tend to have high com pressive stress. The internal stress is also related to preferred orientati on of films. Films having the (001) preferential orientation show higher co mpressive stress than those having the (111) preferred orientation. (C) 199 9 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.