Properties of AlN grown by plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition

Abstract The influence of growth parameters on the properties of AlN films fabricated by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition using trimethylaluminum and ammonia precursors was investigated. The atomic concentrations, refractive index, mass density, crystallinity and surface roughness were studied from the films grown in the temperature range of 100–300 °C with plasma discharge times between 2.5 and 30 s. The AlN films were shown to be hydrogen rich having H concentrations in the range of 13–27 at.% with inverse dependence on the growth temperature. The carbon and oxygen concentrations in the films were less than 2.6% and 0.2%, respectively. The refractive index and mass density of the films correlated with the hydrogen concentration so that higher concentrations (lower growth temperatures) resulted in smaller refractive index and mass density. The film grown at 300 °C was found to be crystalline whereas lower growth temperature produced amorphous films.

[1]  Dispersion properties of aluminum nitride as measured by an optical waveguide technique , 1997 .

[2]  F. Grangeon,et al.  Profile control of high aspect ratio trenches of silicon. I. Effect of process parameters on local bowing , 2002 .

[3]  I. Petrov,et al.  Structural Properties of AlN Grown on Sapphire at Plasma Self-Heating Conditions Using Reactive Magnetron Sputter Deposition , 2010 .

[4]  T. Sajavaara,et al.  Analysis of ALD-processed thin films by ion-beam techniques , 2005, Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry.

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

[6]  Genetic algorithm using independent component analysis in x-ray reflectivity curve fitting of periodic layer structures , 2007 .

[7]  L. G. Parratt.  Surface Studies of Solids by Total Reflection of X-Rays , 1954 .

[8]  L. Névot,et al.  Caractérisation des surfaces par réflexion rasante de rayons X. Application à l'étude du polissage de quelques verres silicates , 1980 .

[9]  D. Gilmer,et al.  Electrical and materials properties of AlN/ HfO2 high-k stack with a metal gate , 2009 .

[10]  C. Detavernier,et al.  Conformality of Al2O3 and AlN Deposited by Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition , 2010 .

[11]  M. Leskelä,et al.  Toward the Understanding of Stacked Al-Based High-k Dielectrics for Passivation of 4H-SiC Devices , 2011 .

[12]  Hyeong Joon Kim,et al.  Spectrophotometric analysis of aluminum nitride thin films , 1999 .

[13]  M. Ritala,et al.  Analysis of AlN thin films by combining TOF-ERDA and NRB techniques , 1996 .

[14]  T. Seidel,et al.  Atomic Layer Deposition of Aluminum Nitride Thin films from Trimethyl Aluminum (TMA) and Ammonia , 2004 .

[15]  J. W. Rogers,et al.  The surface chemistry of aluminum nitride MOCVD on alumina using trimethylaluminum and ammonia as precursors , 1994 .

[16]  Y. Hatanaka,et al.  Remote plasma deposition of aluminum nitride , 1991 .

[17]  Martin E. Kordesch,et al.  Optical characterization of sputtered amorphous aluminum nitride thin films by spectroscopic ellipsometry , 2005 .

[18]  A. Aierken,et al.  GaAs surface passivation by plasma-enhanced atomic-layer-deposited aluminum nitride , 2010 .

[19]  Y. Taniyasu,et al.  An aluminium nitride light-emitting diode with a wavelength of 210 nanometres , 2006, Nature.

[20]  R. Beresford,et al.  Microstructure of AlN on Si (111) grown by plasma‐assisted molecular beam epitaxy , 1994 .

[21]  L. Nevot,et al.  Characterization of surfaces by grazing X-ray reflection: Application to the study of the polishing of various silicate glasses , 1991 .