Titanium nitride (TiN) has mechanical and electrical characteristics applicable for very\nlarge scale integration (VLSI) and discrete electronic devices. This study assessed the effect of\nhydrogen on sputtering growth of TiN on ceramic substrates. Although ceramic substrate is used\nin discrete device applications due to its insulating property, ceramic is also porous and contains\noxygen and water vapor gases, which can be incorporated into TiN films during growth. In addition,\ndiscrete devices are usually packaged in glass sealing at 700 DegreeC, and reaction with the trapped gases\ncan significantly degrade the quality of the TiN film. In order to evaluate ways to minimize the\neffects of these gases on TiN, hydrogen gas was introduced during sputtering growth. The main\nhypothesis was that the hydrogen gas would react with oxygen to lower the oxygen density in the\nvacuum chamber, which would suppress the effects of the trapped gases in the ceramic and ultimately\nimprove the quality of the TiN film. Improvements in TiN quality were confirmed by X-ray diffraction\n(XRD), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and resistance measurements. During the glass-sealing\nprocess,N2-purging at 400 DegreeC was effective at keeping the TiN in a low resistance state. These results\nshow that introducing hydrogen gas during sputtering growth could solve the problems caused by\nceramic substrates.
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