Thermal Characterization of SiC Amorphous Thin Films

The cross-plane thermal conductivity of SiC amorphous films was measured employing the transient thermoreflectance technique. The SiC films were deposited on silicon substrates by RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The thickness of the films was varied in the range from 100 nm to 2500 nm to analyze the size effect. The results found that the thermal conductivity of the SiC thin films is significantly smaller than that of the SiC material in bulk form. The small thermal conductivity stems from the structural disorder of the films, which was confirmed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. In addition, the contribution of the thermal boundary resistance to the thermal conductivity of the films is discussed.