Schottky barrier contacts of titanium nitride on n-type silicon

Abstract

Schottky contacts of TiNx thin films on n-type Si(100) were fabricated by reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature. In situ spectroscopic ellipsometry was used to determine the stoichiometry of the TiNx films. Dark forward bias current–voltage as well as dark reverse bias capacitance–voltage techniques was used to characterize the diodes in the temperature range from 77 to 300 K. The electrical characteristics of the contacts (i.e., barrier height, ideality factor, and leakage current) as well as the inhomogeneity of the spatial distribution of the barrier heights at the interface are improved drastically for overstoichiometric TiNx films obtained by using low negative bias voltage and/or high N2 flow rates during the TiNx deposition.