Morphology and Dielectric Properties of Reactively Sputtered Aluminum Nitride Thin Films

ABSTRACTAluminum nitride thin films (∼ 100 mn) have been deposited on silicon substrate by reactive sputtering using Al target in 1:1 Ar:N2 environment. The atomic force microscopy examination revealed continuous microcrystalline film structure. The Auger electron spectroscopic analysis show the presence of oxygen in the films. The annealing at 850 C in nitrogen is found to cause recrystallization and further oxidation of the films. The films can be characterized as lossy dielectrics with relative permittivity ∼ 10, higher than the bulk value of 8.9. Annealing the films is found to reduce anion vacancies and improve the dielectric strength within a range of a few MV/cm in these thin films.