Research On Ti-Si-N Thin Films Prepared By Magnetron Sputtering

Due to the extraordinary mechanical and thermo-stability properties, Titanium silicon nitride (Ti-Si-N) composite thin films is always the research hotspot in the area of hard materials. In this study, the Ti-Si-N composite thin films prepared on Si and Al substrates by JGP-280single-target and JPG-450A three-target magnetron sputtering system respectively. We test the chemical composition and physical behavior by EPMA、AFM、X-Ray Diffraction、 Nano-indenter and scratch tester. We have the following results:1.We investigated the effect of sputtering pressure systematically by JGP-280single-target magnetron sputtering system. It is found that the thickness of all films deposited under different sputtering pressure is in the range of310～320nm, we can conclude that the sputtering pressure have barely influence on the thickness of thin films. The roughness of the films increase as the increase of sputtering pressure, while the hardness shows an opposite trend, having an obvious decrease as the increase of sputtering pressure. The maximum hardness of Ti-Si-N thin films reaches21.2GPa at0.5Pa.2. We also researched the effects of different Si sputtering power、the flow ratios of N2and substrate bias voltages on the substrates by using the JPG-450A three-target magnetron sputtering system.The deposition rates of all films decrease gradually as the increase of N2flow ratios. Thin films under different N2flow ratios get the top value as23.2GPa at15sccm.The XRD results show that Ti-Si-N composite thin films have polycrystalline structure, the preferred orientation of thin films are (111)、(200) and (220).In the result, the hardness and elastic modulus of the films increase as the increase of Si sputtering power, they reach the maximum value27.1GPa and298.5GPa respectively when the Si sputtering power is30W, the best adhesion force of1800g also at the same condition. The RMS roughness is19.68nm and10.92nm when Si sputter power is0Wand80W respectively.The deposition rates decrease continuously as the substrate bias voltages increase. The atomic contents of Si element of the films have a maximum value when substrate bias voltage is200V, the hardness get its top value26.2GPa at substrate bias voltage of100V, the best adhesion force is optimized to650g at substrate bias voltage of300V.