EFFECTS OF SUBSTRATE BIAS ON THE RESISTIVITY AND MICROSTRUCTURE OF MOLYBDENUM AND MOLYBDENUM SILICIDE FILMS

A continuous series of Mo-Si alloys (Mo//xSi//1// minus //x), with 0. 3 less than equivalent to x less than equivalent to 1, have been deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering of molybdenum in silane and argon plasma. The effects of sputter deposition parameters such as the deposition rate, substrate temperature, substrate bias and gas flow conditions on the resistivity of molybdenum and molybdenum silicide films are reported. The resistivity of molybdenum films shows a pronounced decrease with an increase in the negative substrate bias and the rate of film growth. The changes is the resistivity of molybdenum and MoSi//2 films are attributed to the degree of oxygen contamination and microstructural modifications during growth.