TiN structural modifications induced by bias voltage in a new dynamic controlled magnetron sputtering apparatus

Bias voltage applied to the substrate holder during thin film deposition is frequently used for modifying the coating properties in magnetron sputtering process. In this work, TiN thin films were deposited on (111) silicon. The magnetron sputtering equipment used was coupled with a quadrupole residual gas analyzer (QMG) in order to analyze the argon to nitrogen ratio involved in the deposition process. The working pressure was always 3 x 10(-1) Pa, and the deposition time and source power were maintained constant for all samples. The bias voltage was varied in the range -100 V to +100 V. The deposited thin films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) and microhardness. With these results we can observe the film structure differences among the samples. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.