Electrical and Structural Properties of Ni-60%Cr Thin Film in an Embedded Resistor

摘要

The NiCr alloy has relatively large resistivity, good resistant to oxidation and low temperature coefficients of resistance (TCR) compared to other resistor metarials. These properties of NiCr thin films are dependent on the processing conditions including the deposition environment and subsequent annealing treatments. To establish optimizing conditions, Ni-60%Cr thin films were deposited by a sputtering method to control the resistivity and TCR. The experiments were carried out under various process pressures to determine the optimum conditions to achieve a high resistivity and low TCR. The thermal stability of Ni-60%Cr thin films at various heat treatment temperatures was also evaluated. The electrical properties of the sputtered Ni-60%Cr thin films were investigated by probe station and their crystal structures were observed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The surface morphology was observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). As a result, a stable resistivity and TCR was respectively observed at 3-15 mTorr and 3-7 mTorr. The heat treatment results revealed an increase in thermal resistance with increasing temperature with a concomitant decrease in the TCR, and a near-zero TCR was obtained at 673 K.