Low-temperature (≤200 °C) plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition of dense titanium nitride thin films

Titanium nitride (TiN) has been widely used in the semiconductor industry for its diffusion barrier and seed layer properties. However, it has seen limited adoption in other industries in which low temperature (<200 °C) deposition is a requirement. Examples of applications which require low temperature deposition are seed layers for magnetic materials in the data storage (DS) industry and seed and diffusion barrier layers for through-silicon-vias (TSV) in the MEMS industry. This paper describes a low temperature TiN process with appropriate electrical, chemical, and structural properties based on plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition method that is suitable for the DS and MEMS industries. It uses tetrakis-(dimethylamino)-titanium as an organometallic precursor and hydrogen (H₂) as co-reactant. This process was developed in a Veeco NEXUS™ chemical vapor deposition tool. The tool uses a substrate rf-biased configuration with a grounded gas shower head. In this paper, the complimentary and self-limiting character of this process is demonstrated. The effects of key processing parameters including temperature, pulse time, and plasma power are investigated in terms of growth rate, stress, crystal morphology, chemical, electrical, and optical properties. Stoichiometric thin films with growth rates of 0.4–0.5 Å/cycle were achieved. Low electrical resistivity (<300 μΩ cm), high mass density (>4 g/cm³), low stress (<250 MPa), and >85% step coverage for aspect ratio of 10:1 were realized. Wet chemical etch data show robust chemical stability of the film. The properties of the film have been optimized to satisfy industrial viability as a Ruthenium (Ru) preseed liner in potential data storage and TSV applications.