Low temperature deposition of low stress silicon nitride by reactive magnetron sputtering

Abstract

Silicon nitride thin film is a well-know kind of material in semiconductor industries. These films are used in important applications such as protective layers; insulators for optical devices, as dielectric material for thin film transistors (TFTs), etc. In this work, silicon nitride thin films were deposited at room temperature through of the reaction of sputtered silicon by argon ions and nitrogen gas with relatively high deposition rates in sputtering reactive processes. We have obtained silicon nitride thin films with low stress for MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) fabrication and in post-processing of sensors and actuators devices. Silicon nitride thin films obtained in this work showed stoichiometric (Si3N4) and/or rich in silicon with low mechanical stress and good dielectric properties. The films were analyzed by scanning electron microscope, micro-Raman spectroscopy, profilometry, current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements, laser-based measurement for determination the internal stress and Rutherford Backscattering.