Aluminum nitride thin film growth and applications for heat dissipation

•Aluminum nitride thermal conductivity measured by TDTR method to be 13 W/m·K•Thermal conductivity is related to film thickness and crystal orientation.•Aluminum nitride film growth rate can reach 3.3 μm/h.

Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film, due to its electrical and thermal properties, can be used as thermal interface material for flexible electronics. The relationship between thermal conductivity and microstructure of aluminum nitride film was studied on films grown on glass by DC magnetron reactive sputtering at room temperature. The crystal orientation, deposition rate and grain size of AlN films were affected by the deposition power. The crystallization quality and the effective thermal conductivity of the AlN films were strongly dependent on the film thickness at the optimum power of 600 W. The bulk thermal conductivity of AlN films was found to be 15.4 W/(m·K) in this study.