Study of TiN films by filtered cathodic vacuum arc techniques

Thin TiN was grown on Si wafers (100) using a filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique. The films were characterised by their structural and mechanical behaviour. It was found that the properties of the deposited films are strongly dependent on the bias applied to the substrate. An increasing negative substrate bias results in a decrease in film compressive stress from 7.5 to 3.5 GPa and in hardness from 27.5 to 18.5 GPa. X-ray diffraction shows a preferred alignment from the (200) to the (111) direction with increasing negative substrate bias. Atomic force microscopy results also show increasing surface roughness and grain size.