A comparative study of the diffusion barrier properties of TiN and ZrN

Synthesis of nanocrystalline titanium nitride at low temperature and its thermal stability

“…Titanium nitride (TiN) is an important material due to its many superior properties, such as superior high-temperature strength, excellent corrosion and wear resistance, high melting point (2950 • C), extreme hardness (2160 kg/mm 2 ), high chemical and thermal stability, and high electrical and thermal conductivity and gold color [1][2][3][4][5]. These attractive properties allow it to be used as hard, protective coatings for cutting tools [6,7], as diffusion barriers in microelectronics [8][9][10], as crucibles in metal smelting, as an optical coating [11] and as a gold-colored surface for jewelry [12]. Besides these, titanium nitride is also used as a solar energy absorber [13], an IR reflector, and a thin film resistor [14].…”

Studies on zirconium nitride films deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering

“…Transition metal nitride coatings such as ZrN/TiN have been extensively studied for industrial applications, such as hard coating [1,2], diffusion barrier in semiconductor technology [3][4][5], optical applications for heat mirrors [6][7][8][9][10] and decorative coatings [11][12][13][14] because of their outstanding properties.…”

Properties of ZrN films as substrate masks in liquid phase epitaxial lateral overgrowth of compound semiconductors

“…Studies of ZrN films show that even after 1 h long heat treatment at 900°C there is no tendency for the film to decompose by losing nitrogen into vacuum, although some outdiffusion of nitrogen to a steel substrate used has been found [15]. Moreover, a decrease of electrical resistivity of ZrN films has been reported after 1 h long anneal in vacuum at 900°C [9] or for 30 min in Ar at 1000°C [10]. This effect cannot be explained by modification of film microstructure since no change of grain size has been found after annealing up to 1000°C [13].…”

“…on cutting tools [8]. They also show excellent behaviour as diffusion barriers in low resistivity metal/semiconductor ohmic contacts [9] and replace refractory metals as metallizations in VLSI electronic devices [10].…”