Dielectric Characteristics of $Al_2O_3$ Thin Films Deposited by Reactive Sputtering

Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) films have been investigated for many applications such as insulating materials, hard coatings, and diffusion barriers due to their attractive electrical and mechanical properties. In recent years, application of Al2O3 films for dielectric materials in integrated circuits as gates and capacitors has attracted much attention. Various deposition techniques such as sol-gel, metalorganic decomposition (MOD), sputtering, evaporation, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), and pulsed laser ablation have been used to fabricate Al2O3 thin films. Among these techniques, reactive sputtering has been widely used due to its high deposition rate and easy control of film composition. It has been also reported that the sputtered Al2O3 films exhibit superior chemical stability and mechanical strength compared to the films fabricated by other processes. In this study, Al2O3 thin films were deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO/Si2 and Si substrates by DC reactive sputtering at room temperature with variation of the Ar/O2 ratio in sputtering ambient. Crystalline phase of the reactively sputtered films was characterized using X-ray diffractometry and the surface morphology of the films was observed with Scanning election microscopy. Effects of Th Ar/O2 ratio characteristics of Al2O3 films were investigated with emphasis on the thickness dependence of the dielectric properties. Correlation between the dielectric properties and the microstructure was also studied