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Deposition of titanium nitride thin film on stainless steel substrates using dense plasma focus device
Author
Chew, Wye Mun
Supervisor
Lee, Sing
Abstract
In this work, the dense plasma focus (DPF) device was used to deposit titanium nitride (TiN) thin film on 304 stainless steel substrates. Deposition was carried out at room temperature, and also at temperatures of 100oC, 200oC, and 300oC. Other parameters include distance between target and substrate at 7cm and 1Ocm, substrate position and number of shots (10, 20,30). The vacuum chamber was pumped down to a base pressure of 0.01 torr. Strong focus was obtained at the pre-determined optimum pressure of 2.5 mbar with nitrogen as the working gas.
XRD analysis on the samples showed deposition of (Ill), (200), (220). (31 1) and (222) TiN diffraction peaks on deposited film samples, matching the JCPDF standards both in crystal plane orientations and relative intensity as well. This indicates deposition of polycrystalline and stoichiometric TiN thin film.
SEM studies showed large conglomerations TiN crystals. without any preferred ori1:ntation. Grain size was estimated to be less than 100nm.
EDX analysis indicated a deposition of pure TIN film, without any impurities, despite the relatively high base pressure. Film thickness was estimated to be between 0.5 - 1.7 micron thick, using the Electron Flight Simulator@ while a maximum hardness of 23 GPa was measured using the Nanoindenter 11.
Optimum deposition conditions were concluded to be 30-shot deposition, with the substrate vertically above the target, done at room temperature and working pressure of 2.5 mbar.
The above results indicate a potential of DPF device to be an alternative deposition method for producing good quality TiN thin films at room temperature, a relatively high pressure and low cost.
XRD analysis on the samples showed deposition of (Ill), (200), (220). (31 1) and (222) TiN diffraction peaks on deposited film samples, matching the JCPDF standards both in crystal plane orientations and relative intensity as well. This indicates deposition of polycrystalline and stoichiometric TiN thin film.
SEM studies showed large conglomerations TiN crystals. without any preferred ori1:ntation. Grain size was estimated to be less than 100nm.
EDX analysis indicated a deposition of pure TIN film, without any impurities, despite the relatively high base pressure. Film thickness was estimated to be between 0.5 - 1.7 micron thick, using the Electron Flight Simulator@ while a maximum hardness of 23 GPa was measured using the Nanoindenter 11.
Optimum deposition conditions were concluded to be 30-shot deposition, with the substrate vertically above the target, done at room temperature and working pressure of 2.5 mbar.
The above results indicate a potential of DPF device to be an alternative deposition method for producing good quality TiN thin films at room temperature, a relatively high pressure and low cost.
Date Issued
2000
Call Number
TK7871.15.F5 Che
Date Submitted
2000