Deposition of titanium nitride films onto silicon by an ion beam assisted deposition method

Titanium nitride (TiN) films were deposited onto silicon wafers using an ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) method with an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion source for ionizing the nitrogen (N2) gas under a condition of high nitrogen ion to titanium neutral ratio. The deposition rate of the TiN films was strongly dependent on the evaporation rate, dTi, of Ti metal and decreased with increasing nitrogen ion current. The deposition rate can be approximated as d=βdTiϕN2/{1/k+ϕN2}−αI, where β, k and α are proportional constants, ϕN2 is the sum rate of neutral and ionized nitrogen impinging onto the substrate, and I is the nitrogen ion current.