Phase, grain structure, stress, and resistivity of sputter-deposited tungsten films

Sputter-deposited W films with nominal thicknesses between 5 and 180 nm were prepared by varying the base pressure prior to film deposition and by including or not including sputtered SiO2 encapsulation layers. X-ray and electron diffraction studies showed that single phase, polycrystalline α-W could be achieved in as-deposited films as thin as 5 nm. The stress state in the as-deposited films was found to be inhomogeneous. Annealing resulted in stress relaxation and reduction of resistivity for all films, except the thinnest, unencapsulated film, which agglomerated. In-plane film grain sizes measured for a subset of the annealed films with thicknesses between 5 and 180 nm surprisingly showed a near constant value (101–116 nm), independent of film thickness. Thick-film (≥120 nm) resistivity values as low as 8.6 μΩ cm at 301 K were obtained after annealing at 850 °C for 2 h. Film resistivities were found to increase with decreasing film thicknesses below 120 nm, even for films which are fully A2 α-W with no metastable, A15 β-W evident.