Abstract
Binary metal nitride films has been commonly used in industry as protective coatings and metallization layer in microelectronics due to its high hardness, better wear resistance, and excellent corrosion resistance. With the considerably fast-progressing development in technology, the quality demands of which goes higher. In the past decade, ternary nitride films, such as TiZrN, TiAlN, TiSiN, have been widely researched for the addition of another element enhances the properties of which. In this study, the nanocrystalline TiZrN thin films were deposited on Si(100) wafer using unbalance magnetron sputtering. The current of Titanium target and that of zirconium target changed from 0.16 to 0.32 A and thus changed the ratio of Ti to Zr, the total target current of which was fixed at 4.8 A. The microstructure of the TiZrN films was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The texture coefficient and grain size were both calculated according to the result of θ/2θ scans. The lattice parameters of the TiZrN films was calculated according to the result of grazing incident X-ray diffraction. The thickness and cross-section morphology of the TiZrN thin films was further observed and measured using field-emission gun scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). The composition and packing factor of the TiZrN thin films were determined by the Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy (RBS). The composition of the TiZrN films was also determined using X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The hardness of the TiZrN films was measured using nanoindenter. The electrical resistivity of the TiZrN films was measured using a four-point probe. The surface roughness of the TiZrN films was characterized by atomic force microscope (AFM). The residual stress of the TiZrN films were determined using a laser curvature measurement system.