Structural studies of zinc oxide films grown by RF magnetron sputtering

The main purpose of this study consists of researching the piezoelectric characteristics of ZnO films grown by RF magnetron sputtering in reactive plasma. In this way the influence of deposition parameters, such as RF power and plasma oxygen content, on the structural and morphological properties of the films are analyzed. ZnO films are grown on SiO2/Si(100) substrate using a zinc oxide target. Different RF powers (from 50 to 200 W) and reactive plasmas (from 5 to 15% of oxygen content) have been tested and optimized to produce good quality films suitable for fabricating surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. Crystalline structures and morphological characteristics of the films are investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). respectively. SAW devices are fabricated with "IDT(Al)/ZnO/SiO2-Si" configuration. The frequency response of these devices is measured for their characterization. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.