Effect of Target Bias on TiN Coatings Using Reactive Magnetron Sputtering

Nanocrystal line TiN coatings were deposited oil Si(100) substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering. The effect of bias voltage on the microstructural morphologies and textures of the TiN films was characterized by using FE-SEM and XRD. The films deposited under an Ar + N-2 atmosphere exhibited a mixed (200)-(111) orientation with a strong (200) texture, which subsequently changed to a strong (111) texture with increasing bias voltage. We also observed that the columnar size decreases with increasing bias voltage, which corresponds to an increasing diffraction peak width in the XRD patterns. The changes in texture and grain size in the TiN thin films are due to one or a combination of factors, such as strain energy, surface free energy, surface diffusivity and adatom mobility, the influence of each factor depending on the processing conditions.