Low temperature deposition of highly oriented AlN polycrystalline films by ECR sputtering

Abstract

The electrical characteristics and the crystallinity of aluminum nitride (AlN) films deposited by electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) sputtering for surface acoustic wave devices have been estimated. In ECR sputtering, a metal target (Al) was used. The optimization of the AlN films deposition process was carried out by the combination of process gases (Ar/Xe, N₂) for high resistivity, high dielectric constant and high crystallinity. We have been measured the electrical properties of deposited AlN thin films using metal-insulator-metal structure. The crystallinity of AlN thin films was measured by X-ray diffraction. In spite of low temperature deposition without external substrate heating, the AlN thin films with high quality have been obtained.