CHARACTERISTICS OF RAPIDLY THERMALLY ANNEALED RUO2 FILMS ON SIO2

RuO2 films have been fabricated on oxidized silicon wafer by reactive sputtering of ruthenium. The sheet resistivity of as-deposited film was 10-OMEGA/square for a film thickness of 1500 angstrom. The as-deposited films were annealed in oxygen, nitrogen and argon atmospheres. The sheet resistivity of the film was found to decrease with increase in annealing temperature and the lowest sheet resistivity obtained was 2-OMEGA/square. The surface morphologies of the ruthenium dioxide films were found to be smooth and did not change significantly as a result of the annealing process. Auger depth profiling shows loss of oxygen at the surface for films annealed in nitrogen atmosphere and negligible out-diffusion of silicon into RuO2 for annealing temperatures in the range 300-900-degrees-C.