Abstract: Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films with high c-axis orientation have been prepared on a glass substrate with an Al bottom electrode by radio frequency (RF) reactive magnetron sputtering. Based on the analysis of Berg’s hysteresis model, the improved sputtering system is realized without a hysteresis effect. A new control method for rapidly depositing highly c-axis oriented AlN thin films is proposed. The N₂ concentration could be controlled by observing the changes in cathode voltage, to realize the optimum processing condition where the target could be fixed stably in the transition region, and both stoichiometric film composition and a high deposition rate could be obtained. Under a 500 W RF power of a target with a 6 cm diameter, a substrate temperature of 450 °C, a target-substrate distance of 60 mm and a N₂ concentration of 25%, AlN thin film with preferential (002) orientation was deposited at 2.3 μm/h which is a much higher rate than previously achieved. Through X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of AlN (002) was shown to be about 0.28°, which shows the good crystallinity and crystal orientation of AlN thin film. With other parameters held constant, any increase or decrease in N₂ concentration results in an increase in the FWHM of AlN.

Key words: Aluminum nitride (AlN), Piezoelectric thin film, Radio frequency (RF) reactive sputtering, Preferred orientation, Film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR)

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