• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2003

Quaternary Ti-Al-Si-N films were deposited on WC-Co substrates by a hybrid deposition system of arc ion plating (AIP) method for Ti-Al source and DC magnetron sputtering technique for Si incorporation. The synthesized Ti-Al-Si-N films were revealed to be composites of solid-solution (Ti, Al, Si)N crystallites and amorphous Si3N4 by instrumental analyses. The Si addition in Ti-Al-N films affected the refinement and uniform distribution of crystallites by percolation phenomenon of amorphous silicon nitride, similarly to Si effect in TiN film. As the Si content increased up to about 9 at.%, the hardness of Ti-Al-N film steeply increased from 30 GPa to about 50 GPa. The highest microhardness value (~50 GPa) was obtained from the Ti-Al-Si-N film haying the Si content of 9 at.%, the microstructure of which was characterized by a nanocomposite of nc-(Ti,Al,Si) N/a$-Si_3$$N_4$.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.398-404
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• 2000

The Ti-Al-V-N films have been deposited on various substrates by d.c and r.f reactive magnetron sputtering from a Ti-6Al-4V alloy target in mixed $Ar-N_2$ discharges. The films were investigated by means of XRD, AES, SEM/EDX, microhardness, TG and scratch test. The XRD and SEM results indicated that the films were of single B1 NaCl phase having dense columnar structure with the (111) preferred orientation. The composition of Ti-Al-V-N film was the Ti-7.1Al-4.3V-N(wt%) films. Adhesion and microhardness of Ti-Al-V-N films deposited by r.f magnetron sputtering method were better than those deposited by d.c magnetron sputtering method. The anti-oxidation properties of Ti-Al-V-N films were also superior to that of Ti-N film deposited by the same deposition conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.22-26
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• 2001

Microstructures of AlN thin films on Si substrates grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy were analyzed with various growth temperatures and substrate orientations. Reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns were checked for the in-situ monitoring of the growth condition. X-ray diffraction(XRD), double crystal X-ray diffraction (DCXD), and transmission electron microscopy/diffraction (TEM/TED) techniques were employed to characterize the microstructure of the films after growth. On Si(100) sub-strates, AlN thin films were grown mostly along the hexagonal c-axis orientation at temperature higher than $850^{\circ}C$. On the other hand the AlN films on Si(111) were epitaxially grown with directional coherencies in AlN(0001)/Si(111), AlN(1100)/Si(110), and AlN(1120)/Si(112). The microstructure of AlN thin films on Si(111) substrates, with a full width at half maximum of almost 3000 arcsec at 2$\theta$=$36.2^{\circ}$, showed that the single crystal films were grown, even if they includ a lot of crystal defects such as dislocations and stacking faults.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.111-114
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• 2000

Growth characteristics and microstructure of AlN thin films grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy on Si substrates have been investigated. Growing temperature and substrate orientation were chosen as major variables of the experiment. Reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy/diffraction (TEM/TED) techniques were employed to characterize the microstructure of the films. On Si(100) substrates, AlN thin films were grown along the hexagonal c-axis preferred orientation at temperature range 850-90$0^{\circ}C$. However on Si(111), the AlN films were epitaxially grown with directional coherency in AlN(0001)/Si(111), AlN(1100)/Si(110), and AlN(1120)/Si(112) at 85$0^{\circ}C$ and the epitaxial coherencry seemed to be slightly distorted with increasing temperature. The microstructure of AlN thin films on Si(111) substrates showed that the films include a lot of crystal defects and there exist micro-gaps among the columns.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.71-72
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• 2008

In this paper, the effect of thermal annealing on surface acoustic wave (SAW) properties of aluminum nitride (AlN) films were described. The films were fabricated on Si substrates by using Pulsed Reactive Magnetron Sputtering System. The SAW properties of $600^{\circ}C$-annealed AlN films were better than those of both $900^{\circ}C$-annealed AlN films and as-deposited ones. Their SAW velocities (Raleigh mode) and insertion losses were about 5212 m/s and 16.19 dB at $600^{\circ}C$ with the wavelength of $40{\mu}m$. The dependence of characteristics of AlN films on annealing conditions were also evaluated by using Fourier Transform-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) Spectrums and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.151-154
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• 2003

AlN/Al/SiO$_2$/Si thin films for application to FBAR(Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator) devices were prepared by FTS(Facing Targets sputtering system) apparatus which provides a stable discharge at low gas pressures and can deposit high quality thin films because of the substrate located apart from the plasma. The AlN thin films were deposited on a $SiO_2(1{\mu}m)/Si(100)$ substrate using an Al bottom electrode. The process parameters were fixed such as sputering power of 200W, working pressures of 1mTorr and AlN thin film thickness of 800nm, respectively and crytallographic characteristics of AlN thin films were investigated as a function of $N_2$ gas flow rate$[N_2/(N_2+Ar)]$. Thickness of AlN thin films were measured by $\alpha$-step, the crystallographic characteristics and c-axis preferred orientation were evaluated by XRD.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.248-255
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• 2012

AlN thin films containing various amounts of Co, AlN-Co, and Al-Co alloy particles were prepared using a two-facing-target type dc reactive sputtering (TFTS) system. The as-deposited films exhibited the variable nature expected from an AlN-rich phase, and an amorphous-like phase, depending on the Co content in the films. Specific favorable microstructures were prepared by optimizing annealing conditions. Those microstructures and their magnetic properties and resistivity were investigated. As-deposited films showed very small saturation magnetization and an amorphous-like structure. However, when annealed, the as-deposited amorphous-like phase decomposes into phases of AlN, Co and Al-Co. These annealing induced changes in the microstructure improve the magnetization and resistivity of the films. Further improvement of soft magnetic properties could lead to the material being used for high density magnetic recording head material.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.828-833
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• 2000

Growth characteristics and microstructure of AIN thin films grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy on Si substrates have been investigated. Growing temperature and substrate orientation were chosen as major variables of the experiment. Reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy/diffraction (TEM/TED) techniques were employed to characterize the micorstructure of the films. On Si(100) substrates, AlN thin films were grown along the hexagonal c-axis preferred orientation at temperature range 850-90$0^{\circ}C$. However on Si(111), the AlN films were epitaxially grown with directional coherency in AlN(0001)/Si(111), AlN(1100)/Si(110), and AlN(1120)/Si(112) at 85$0^{\circ}C$ and the epitaxial coherencry seemed to be slightly distorted with increasing temperature. The microstructure of AlN thin films on Si(111) substrates showed that the films include a lot of crystal defects and there exist micro-gaps among the columns.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.809-816
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• 1995

Ti1-xAlxN films were successfully deposited on high speed steel and silicon wafer by plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition using a TiCl4/AlCl3/N2/Ar/H2 gas mixture. Plasma process enabled N2 gas to nitride AlCl3, which is not possible in sense of thermodynamics. XPS analyses revealed that the deposited layer contained Al-N bond as well as Ti-N bond. Ti1-xAlxN films were polycrystalline and had single phase, B1-NaCl structure of TiN. Interplanar distance, d200, of (200) crystal plane of Ti1-xAlxN was, however, decreased with Al content, x. Al incorporation into TiN caused the grain size to be finer and changed strong (200) preferred orientation of TiN to random oriented microstructure. Those microstructural changes with Al addition resulted in the increase of micro-hardness of Ti1-xAlxN film up to 2800Kg/$\textrm{mm}^2$ compared with 1400Kg/$\textrm{mm}^2$ of TiN.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.28-33
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• 2011

This paper describes the fabrication of AlN thin films containing iron and iron nitride particles, and the magnetic and electrical properties of such films. Fe-N-Al alloy films were deposited in Ar and $N_2$ mixtures at ambient temperature using Fe/Al composite targets in a two-facing-target DC sputtering system. X-ray diffraction results showed that the Fe-N-Al films were amorphous, and after annealing for 5 h both AlN and bcc-Fe/bct-$FeN_x$ phases appeared. Structure changes in the $FeN_x$ phases were explained in terms of occupied nitrogen atoms. Electron diffraction and transmission electron microscopy observations revealed that iron and iron nitride particles were randomly dispersed in annealed AlN films. The grain size of magnetic particles ranged from 5 to 20 nm in diameter depending on annealing conditions. The saturation magnetization as a function of the annealing time for the $Fe_{55}N_{20}Al_{25}$ films when annealed at 573, 773 and 873 K. At these temperatures, the amount of iron/iron nitride particles increased with increasing annealing time. An increase in the saturation magnetization is explained qualitatively in terms of the amount of such magnetic particles in the film. The resistivity increased monotonously with decreasing Fe content, being consistent with randomly dispersed iron/iron nitride particles in the AlN film. The coercive force was evaluated to be larger than $6.4{\times}10^3Am^{-1}$ (80 Oe). This large value is ascribed to a residual stress restrained in the ferromagnetic particles, which is considered to be related to the present preparation process.