Electrical properties of TiN films deposited by filtered cathodic vacuum arc

High quality TiN films were deposited by an off-plane double bend filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique. The influence of deposition pressure, substrate bias, and deposition temperature on the structure and electrical resistivity of TiN films were systematically studied. As the deposition pressure is increased, the film structure evolves from hexagonal α-TiN0.30 to cubic TiN, and the electrical resistivity decreases drastically at the pressure below 2×10−4 Torr, then increases slightly with the further increase of deposition pressure. With the increase of substrate bias, the electrical resistivity decreases drastically, reaching the minimum of 45 μΩ cm at a substrate bias of −100 V, then increases greatly, which results from the variation of N content in TiN films with increasing substrate bias. The increase in the deposition temperature results in a significant decrease in the defect density and a slight increase in the grain size, which accounts for a linear decrease in the electrical resistivity. Our results indicate that the main factors that affect the electrical resistivity of TiN films are the N content, phase structure, and defect density in the films. The grain size plays only a minor role in the electrical resistivity of TiN films.