Characterizing the effects of multiprocess parameters on the preferred orientation of TiN coating using a combined index

The preferred orientations of TiN films deposited by various PVD processes have been extensively studied. However, deriving a general trend to illustrate the effect of a single process parameter is difficult since other process parameters also affect the evolution of the preferred orientation during the deposition. This study presents a combined index, S-E/Temp(degreesK), to characterize the effects on the TiN preferred orientation of HCD ion-plating process parameters, such as bias voltage, deposition power, and temperature. The S-E/Temp(degreesK) index is the ratio of the energy delivered to a unit volume of growing film (S-E) to the deposition temperature. Experimental results show that the TiN preferred orientation changes from (200) to (111) and then to (220) as S-E/Temp(degreesK) increases. Using this SE/Temp(degreesK) index, a single trend can completely describe the variation of the texture coefficient, obtained by variously adjusting deposition parameters. The S-E/Temp(degreesK) index can singly characterize the effect of multi process parameters. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.