Stress and piezoelectric properties of aluminum nitride thin films deposited onto metal electrodes by pulsed direct current reactive sputtering

Polycrystalline aluminum nitride thin films were deposited onto platinum, aluminum, and titanium electrodes by reactive magnetron sputtering in the pulsed direct current mode. The films exhibited all a columnar microstructure and a c-axis texture. The built-in stress and the piezoelectric properties of these films were studied as a function of both the processing conditions and the electrode material. Stress was found to be very much dependent on the growth conditions, and values ranging from strong compression to high tension were observed. The piezoelectric d33,f coefficient was shown to rely on substrate quality and ionic bombardment: The nucleation surface must be stable with regard to the nitrogen plasma and present a hexagonal symmetry and, on the other hand, enough energy must be delivered to the growing film through ionic bombardment.

[1]  R. Reif,et al.  Measurements of the bulk, C-axis electromechanical coupling constant as a function of AlN film quality , 2000, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[2]  S. Muensit,et al.  Extensional piezoelectric coefficients of gallium nitride and aluminum nitride , 1999 .

[3]  Judith A. Ruffner,et al.  Effect of substrate composition on the piezoelectric response of reactively sputtered AlN thin films , 1999 .

[4]  Paul Muralt,et al.  Properties of aluminum nitride thin films for piezoelectric transducers and microwave filter applications , 1999 .

[5]  P. Muralt,et al.  Aluminum nitride thin films for high frequency applications , 1999 .

[6]  Jai-Young Lee,et al.  Effect of negative bias voltage on the microstructures of AlN thin films fabricated by reactive r.f. magnetron sputtering , 1997 .

[7]  L. J. Pilione,et al.  Development of preferred orientation in polycrystalline AlN thin films deposited by rf sputtering system at low temperature , 1997 .

[8]  D. Vanderbilt,et al.  Spontaneous polarization and piezoelectric constants of III-V nitrides , 1997, cond-mat/9705105.

[9]  K. Kusaka,et al.  Effect of nitrogen gas pressure on residual stress in A1N films deposited by the planar magnetron sputtering system , 1996 .

[10]  Nava Setter,et al.  Interferometric measurements of electric field-induced displacements in piezoelectric thin films , 1996 .

[11]  H. Okano,et al.  Epitaxial AlN Thin Films Grown on α-Al2O3 Substrates by ECR Dual Ion Beam Sputtering , 1995 .

[12]  R. Vispute,et al.  High quality epitaxial aluminum nitride layers on sapphire by pulsed laser deposition , 1995 .

[13]  R. Davis,et al.  Epitaxial growth of AlN by plasma-assisted, gas-source molecular beam epitaxy , 1993 .

[14]  R. L. Peterson,et al.  Aluminum nitride thin film sensor for force, acceleration, and acoustic emission sensing , 1993 .

[15]  G. Eesley,et al.  Measurement of intrinsic stresses during growth of aluminum nitride thin films by reactive sputter deposition , 1993 .

[16]  G. Eesley,et al.  Real time stress measurements and elastic constant of aluminum nitride thin films on Si(111) , 1993 .

[17]  Peter Gauer,et al.  Investigation of thin AIN films for piezolayer-field effect transistor applications , 1993 .

[18]  H. Okano,et al.  Preparation of c-Axis Oriented AlN Thin Films by Low-Temperature Reactive Sputtering , 1992 .

[19]  R. Messier,et al.  Stress dependence of reactively sputtered aluminum nitride thin films on sputtering parameters , 1989 .

[20]  K. Tsubouchi,et al.  Zero-Temperature-Coefficient SAW Devices on AlN Epitaxial Films , 1985, IEEE Transactions on Sonics and Ultrasonics.

[21]  Russell Messier,et al.  Revised structure zone model for thin film physical structure , 1984 .