title: A study of titanium nitride diffusion barriers between aluminum and silicon by X-ray absorption spectroscopy: the Si, Ti and N results.
abstract: We report a multi-elment, multi-edge and multi-detection mode X-ray photoabsorption study of a series of Al/TiN(x)/Si(100) thin films as a function of the TiN(x) film thickness (100A-500A) and of the annealing temperature (400 degrees C-600 degrees C). The Si K- and L-edge results show that Si does not diffuse to the surface for all the films. The high resolution Ti L-edge and N K-edge spectra show that the TiN(x) layer undergoes a dramatic chemical reaction with the gradual increase in the annealing temperature. This chemical reaction stabilizes at 560 degrees C at which the TiN(x) film is known to fail to act as an effective diffusion barrier between Al and Si.
authors.affiliation: Canadian Synchrotron Radiation Facility, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 53589, USA. yhu@julian.uwo.ca
authors.forename: Y F
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: T K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Sham
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: G Q
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Yates
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Bancroft