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Growth of Highly c-Axis Oriented AlScN Films on Commercial Substrates.

Authors :
Su J
Fichtner S
Ghori MZ
Wolff N
Islam MR
Lotnyk A
Kaden D
Niekiel F
Kienle L
Wagner B
Lofink F
Source :
Micromachines [Micromachines (Basel)] 2022 May 17; Vol. 13 (5). Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 May 17.
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

In this work, we present a method for growing highly c -axis oriented aluminum scandium nitride (AlScN) thin films on (100) silicon (Si), silicon dioxide (SiO <subscript>2</subscript> ) and epitaxial polysilicon (poly-Si) substrates using a substrate independent approach. The presented method offers great advantages in applications such as piezoelectric thin-film-based surface acoustic wave devices where a metallic seed layer cannot be used. The approach relies on a thin AlN layer to establish a wurtzite nucleation layer for the growth of w -AlScN films. Both AlScN thin film and seed layer AlN are prepared by DC reactive magnetron sputtering process where a Sc concentration of 27% is used throughout this study. The crystal quality of (0002) orientation of Al <subscript>0.73</subscript> Sc <subscript>0.27</subscript> N films on all three substrates is significantly improved by introducing a 20 nm AlN seed layer. Although AlN has a smaller capacitance than AlScN, limiting the charge stored on the electrode plates, the combined piezoelectric coefficient d <subscript>33,f</subscript> with 500 nm AlScN is only slightly reduced by about 4.5% in the presence of the seed layer.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2072-666X
Volume :
13
Issue :
5
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Micromachines
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
35630250
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13050783