On the dependence of the structural, electrical, mechanical, and tribological properties of Ta2N thin films on film thickness: Application in microelectronic devices

The mechanical and tribological properties play a vital role in the production of the microelectronic device because the long-term stability of the device depends on them. In the present research, the structural, electrical, mechanical, and tribological characteristics of Ta2N thin films were studied for the development of microelectronic devices. The samples were grown by DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique on (400)-oriented Si and SiO2/Si substrates at different thicknesses (80-200 nm). X-ray diffraction technique was used to identify the phase and crystallographic structure while the electrical behavior was investigated by a four-point probe instrument. Nanoindentation and scratch tests were also employed to study the mechanical and tribological characteristics, respectively. All samples represented decent irreversibility of resistivity. A decrease in the film thickness increased the resistivity and developed the nano-strain in the film structure. A decrease in film thickness also improved the hardness as well as resistance to wear and abrasion damage of the samples. The investigations showed that the mentioned behaviors were due to the reduction of crystallite size which in turn caused a denser structure.