Low Temperature Deposition of TiN Ceramic Material by Metal Organic and/or Plasma Enhanced CVD

A review is presented describing the development of TiN-CVD from the classical, high temperature TiCl4/N2 process, towards low temperature MOCVD processes. This development is presented from a chemical point of view. In addition to low pressure (LPCVD) and atmospheric pressure (APCVD) thermal processing, also plasma enhanced (PECVD) techniques are described. In the past few years production facilities for good quality TiN layers for wear resistant applications have come on the market. Production facilities for IC-technology applications of CVD-TiN are on the edge of breaking through. For both applications deposition temperatures have been reduced to 500-600°C. Research developments, have shown even lower deposition temperatures possible for TiN and Ti(C,N) layers