Influence of d.c. substrate bias voltage on growth of cubic boron nitride films by radio frequency sputter

• Published in: Diamond and related materials 2000-09, Vol.9 (9), p.1779-1781
• Main Authors: Deng, Jinxiang, Wang, Bo, Tan, Liwen, Cui, Bentao, Yan, Hui, Chen, Guanghua, Wong, S.P, Kwok, R.W.M, Lau, Leo W.M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cubic boron nitride; Films, DC bias
• ISSN: 0925-9635; 1879-0062
• DOI: 10.1016/S0925-9635(00)00310-1

In this paper, the influence of substrate d.c. bias voltage on growth of cubic boron nitride (c-BN) films by radio frequency (RF) sputter is reported. Boron nitride films were deposited on p-type Si(100) wafers (8–15 Ωcm) which were biased by the d.c. voltage negatively with respect to ground. The sputtering target was hot pressed hexagonal boron nitride of 4 N purity. The sputtering gas was the mixture of nitrogen and argon. The boron nitride films were characterized with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. At a RF power of 360 W and substrate d.c. bias voltage of −200 V, the films contained almost pure phase c-BN. It was shown that different substrate d.c. bias voltages resulted in different cubic phase contents in the c-BN films.