Quantitative characterization of silicon- and aluminium oxynitride films produced by reactive dc-magnetron sputtering

The deposition of aluminum and silicon oxynitride films by reactive dc-magnetron sputtering was systematically planned by design of experiments, carried out and evaluated with the application of specialized statistics software. The influence of the deposition parameters on the resulting films was evaluated by multiple regression analysis. With the obtained data a model of the deposition process for the quantitative prediction of the deposition parameters necessary to obtain films with desired composition was built. This is also of technological importance, since the physical properties of the films strongly depend on their composition. Furthermore, the long term repeatability of the deposition process was implemented into the model. A precise and economic way for quantitative bulk analysis of silicon/aluminum, oxygen and nitrogen based on EPMA was presented and the use of data gained by the latter method is discussed for the calculation of relative sensitivity factors for SIMS and hf-SNMS. Advantages and disadvantages of SIMS, hf-SNMS, hf-GD-OES, and sputter AES were compared. The combination FT-IR/EPMA/SIMS at present offers the best possibility for a quantitative bulk and in depth distribution analysis of such films in the range of 20 to 1000 nm thickness. The films were also characterized by XRD and PAA. The refractive index and the growth rate of the films were determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry. With indentation by a nano hardness tester the hardness and the Young's modulus of the films were obtained. The results of these measurements were evaluated by statistical software. The dependencies of the physical properties on the deposition parameters and on the film thickness were evaluated and quantified. Furthermore, the dependencies of the physical properties on the film composition represented by the oxygen content were evaluated. (author)