Effects of deposition temperature on the mechanical and physical properties of silicon nitride thin films

This study investigates the mechanical and physical properties of low-temperature plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor-deposited silicon nitride thin films, with particular respect to the effect of deposition temperature. The mechanical properties of the films were evaluated by both nanoindentation and microcantilever beam-bending techniques. The cantilever beam specimens were fabricated from silicon nitride thin films deposited on (100) silicon wafer by bulk micromachining. The density of the films was determined from quartz crystal microbalance measurements, as well as from the resonant modes of the cantilever beams, which were mechanically excited using an atomic force microscope. It was found that both the Young’s modulus and density of the films were significantly reduced with decreasing deposition temperature. The decrease in Young’s modulus is attributed to the decreasing material density. The decrease in density with decreasing deposition temperature is believed to be due to the slower diffusion rates o...

[1]  Si‐Chen Lee,et al.  Oxidation of silicon nitride prepared by plasma‐enhanced chemical vapor deposition at low temperature , 1994 .

[2]  Robert Kazinczi,et al.  Versatile tool for characterising long-term stability and reliability of micromechanical structures , 2000 .

[3]  I. Han,et al.  Growth and characterization of silicon-nitride films by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition , 1991 .

[4]  R. Ghodssi,et al.  Mechanical property measurement of InP-based MEMS for optical communications , 2003 .

[5]  Lorenzo Faraone,et al.  Chemical structure of low-temperature plasma-deposited silicon nitride thin films , 2004, SPIE Micro + Nano Materials, Devices, and Applications.

[6]  William D. Nix,et al.  Mechanical properties of compositionally modulated Au-Ni thin films: Nanoindentation and microcantilever deflection experiments , 1994 .

[7]  Y. Meng,et al.  Specimen size effect on mechanical properties of polysilicon microcantilever beams measured by deflection using a nanoindenter , 2001 .

[8]  Mitsuhiro Shikida,et al.  Tensile Testing System for Sub-Micrometer Thick Films , 2002 .

[9]  T. Vaithianathan,et al.  A Surface Masking Technique for the Determination of Plasma Polymer Film Thickness by AFM , 2000 .

[10]  É. Tournié,et al.  RAPID COMMUNICATION: Nanoindentation of Si, GaP, GaAs and ZnSe single crystals , 2003 .

[11]  D. Kwon,et al.  Film-thickness considerations in microcantilever-beam test in measuring mechanical properties of metal thin film , 2003 .

[12]  Weileun Fang,et al.  Determining the Poisson’s ratio of thin film materials using resonant method , 2003 .

[13]  S. Senturia,et al.  M-TEST: A test chip for MEMS material property measurement using electrostatically actuated test structures , 1997 .

[14]  S. Suresh,et al.  Nano-indentation of copper thin films on silicon substrates , 1999 .

[15]  A. Karimi,et al.  Comparison of mechanical properties of TiN thin films using nanoindentation and bulge test , 1998 .

[16]  G. Sauerbrey,et al.  Use of quartz vibration for weighing thin films on a microbalance , 1959 .

[17]  G. Pharr,et al.  An improved technique for determining hardness and elastic modulus using load and displacement sensing indentation experiments , 1992 .

[18]  K. Petersen,et al.  Young’s modulus measurements of thin films using micromechanics , 1979 .

[19]  B. Lawn,et al.  Evaluation of elastic modulus and hardness of thin films by nanoindentation , 2004 .

[20]  G. Sauerbrey.  Verwendung von Schwingquarzen zur Wägung dünner Schichten und zur Mikrowägung , 1959 .

[21]  L. Ortega,et al.  Density of as-deposited and annealed thin silicon nitride films , 1993 .

[22]  R. Besser,et al.  Chemical Etch Rate of Plasma‐Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposited SiO2 Films Effect of Deposition Parameters , 1997 .

[23]  H. Baltes,et al.  A Novel Method to Measure Poisson's Ratio of Thin Films , 1997 .