Comparison study of physical vapor-deposited and chemical vapor-deposited titanium nitride thin films using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

✍ Scribed by Jin Zhao; E.Gene Garza; Kinsang Lam; Clive M Jones

• Book ID: 104309091
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 197 KB
• Volume: 158
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0169-4332
• DOI: 10.1016/s0169-4332(00)00024-6

✦ Synopsis

Ž

. Ž . The chemical compositions of physical vapor-deposited PVD and chemical vapor-deposited CVD titanium nitride Ž . Ž . TiN thin films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS . The effect of a H rN plasma treatment on 2 2 the chemical composition of CVD TiN thin film was also evaluated. The wafers were air-exposed before the XPS analysis. Ž XPS depth profiles show that the PVD TiN has a NrTi ratio of 1:1 with a small amount of oxygen in the film less than 5

. Ž . at.% . Significant amounts ; 20 at.%, respectively of carbon and oxygen were observed in the air-exposed CVD TiN thin film, which has a NrTi ratio of 0.5:1. The H rN plasma treatment greatly reduced the carbon content in the CVD TiN thin 2 2 Ž . film less than 10 at.% and a NrTi ratio of 1:1 was achieved. High resolution XPS spectra indicate that the oxygen in all three TiN thin films analyzed was chemically bonded to Ti. The C1s peak of the as-deposited CVD TiN thin film was resolved into two peaks with binding energies of 282.2 and 284.7 eV, corresponding to the chemical states of carbide and organic carbon. After the H rN plasma treatment, most of the organic carbon was removed with the remaining carbon 2 2 present mainly as carbide in the CVD TiN thin film.