Stress relaxation in Si-rich silicon nitride thin films
- Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 5800, M/S 1084, Albuquerque, New Mexico87185 (United States)
Si-rich silicon nitride thin films have been deposited by low pressure chemical vapor deposition, at 850{degree}C from mixtures of dichlorosilane and ammonia. The films{close_quote} elastic properties have been studied as a function of film composition. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and ellipsometric data indicate that the local atomic strain is a strong function of the calculated volume fraction of Si contained in the films. A relationship is observed that shows the strain to be inversely proportional to the cube root of the Si volume fraction. A model that accounts for distortion in Si{endash}Si{sub x}N{sub 4{minus}x} tetrahedra (x=0{endash}4), upon substitution of silicon for nitrogen in the film is applied to the data. The model is shown to be consistent with measurements of intrinsic film stress across a compositional range from stoichiometric silicon nitride, Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}, to nitrogen-free amorphous silicon, a-Si. {copyright} {ital 1998 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 627735
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Applied Physics Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 83; ISSN JAPIAU; ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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