Heat sensitive property of sputtered titanium oxide thin films for uncooled IR detector application

Titanium oxide (TiOx) thin films were deposited on thermally grown Si3N4-film-coated Si substrates by dc reactive magnetron sputtering. The crystallographic structure, microscopic morphology, electrical resistivity, temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and activation energy of the films were proven as functions of the oxygen partial pressure (pO(2)) and substrate temperature (T (s) ). The mixed valence TiOx thin films deposited with temperature from 30 to 250 A degrees C in different pO(2) present various electrical properties even though all the samples are amorphous. The TCR and activation energy of the films vary with different pO(2) and T (s) . It has been demonstrated that the sputtered TiOx films are promising heat sensitive materials for uncooled Infrared detector application.