Combined electrical and mechanical properties of titanium nitride thin films as metallization materials

Titanium nitride (TiNx) thin films, similar to 100 nm thick, were deposited on Si(100) substrates by dc reactive magnetron sputtering. The effects of the substrate bias voltage and deposition temperature on their optical, electrical, and mechanical properties have been studied. It was found a strong correlation between the electrical and mechanical properties of the films which are significantly improved with increasing the substrate bias voltage and the deposition temperature. The low resistivity (43 mu Omega cm), combined with the high hardness and elastic modulus values, suggest the TiNx as a promising metallization material in Si technology. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021- 8979(99)05021-5].