Structural-dependent thermal conductivity of aluminium nitride produced by reactive direct current magnetron sputtering

This Letter reports the thermal conductivity of aluminium nitride (AlN) thin-films deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering on single-crystal silicon substrates (100) with varying plasma and magnetic conditions achieving different crystalline qualities. The thermal conductivity of the films was measured at room temperature with the transient hot-strip technique for film thicknesses ranging from 100 nm to 4000 nm. The thermal conductivity was found to increase with the thickness depending on the synthesis conditions and film microstructure. The conductivity in the bulk region of the films, so-called intrinsic conductivity, and the boundary resistance were in the range [120-210] W m(-1) K-1 and [2-30 x 10(-9)] K m(2) W-1, respectively, in good agreement with microstructures analysed by x-ray diffraction, high-resolution-scanning-electron-microscopy, and transmission-electron-microscopy. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4757298]