Influences of Target Peak Current Density on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of TiN Films Deposited by Dual Pulsed Power Magnetron Sputtering

doi:10.11900/0412.1961.2017.00406

Acta Metall Sin

2018, Vol. 54

Issue (6): 927-934 DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2017.00406

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Influences of Target Peak Current Density on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of TiN Films Deposited by Dual Pulsed Power Magnetron Sputtering

Huiying SHI, Chao YANG(

), Bailing JIANG, Bei HUANG, Di WANG

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, China

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Huiying SHI, Chao YANG, Bailing JIANG, Bei HUANG, Di WANG. Influences of Target Peak Current Density on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of TiN Films Deposited by Dual Pulsed Power Magnetron Sputtering. Acta Metall Sin, 2018, 54(6): 927-934.

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Abstract

The low kinetic energy and low ionization rate of deposited particle of traditional magnetron sputtering led to low density and poor adhesion of TiN film. The peak current density between cathodic target and anodic chamber was increased several times through the adoption of pulsed power supply mode with low duty cycle, which further enhanced kinetic energy and ionization rate of deposited particle. But the average deposition rate of thin film was significantly reduced. Therefore, a design concept of dual pulsed electric field mode was proposed, which allowed to adjust duration time and target peak current density of the dual pulses. It not only enhanced kinetic energy and ionization rate of deposited particle to satisfy the demand of fabrication of high performance film, but also increased the duration time of pulse to achieve high average deposition rate. In the manuscript, TiN films were deposited by dual pulsed power magnetron sputtering with different target peak current densities of the second pulse stage. The microstructure and mechanical properties of TiN films were characterized using XRD, SEM, nanoindentation and microscratch test. It was found that the TiN film deposited under target peak current density of 0.87 A/cm² exhibited finely dense microstructure with average grain size of 17 nm. Additionally, the hardness and film-substrate adhesion of such film were as high as 29.5 GPa and 30.0 N, respectively.

Key words: TiN film dual pulsed power magnetron sputtering dual pulsed electric field target peak current density mechanical property

Received: 25 September 2017

ZTFLH:

TG43

Fund: Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.51571114)

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	Huiying SHI
	Chao YANG
	Bailing JIANG
	Bei HUANG
	Di WANG

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https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2017.00406 OR https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2018/V54/I6/927

Fig.1 Schematics of dual pulsed power magnetron sputtering (DPPMS) (a) and current waveform of dual pulsed power (DPP) (b)

Table 1 Parameters of TiN films deposited at different target peak current densities

Fig.2 Surface (a, c, e, g) and cross-sectional (b, d, f, h) SEM images of TiN film samples No.1 (a, b), No.2 (c, d), No.3 (e, f) and No.4 (g, h) (Insets in Figs.2a, c, e and g show the enlarged views)

Fig.3 Average and real deposition rates of TiN films

Fig.4 XRD spectra of TiN films

Table 2 Mechanical properties, N/Ti atomic ratio and critical load of TiN films

Fig.5 OM images of the scratch track of TiN film samples No.1 (a), No.2 (b), No.3 (c) and No.4 (d) (Insets show the enlarged views of the rectangle areas)

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