TY - JOUR
T1 - Ion-beam-sputter deposited titanium nitride thin films for conductive atomic force microscope probes
AU - Su, Po Jui
AU - Liu, Bernard Haochih
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the financial support from the National Science Council (Taiwan ROC) under grant no. NSC 99-2628-E-006-005- and NSC 100-2221-E-006-121- . We are grateful for the support of Prof. Jow-Lay Huang and Prof. Jen-Sue Chen of NCKU MSE for providing access to the ion beam sputter system and the four-terminal probe station.
PY - 2013/2/1
Y1 - 2013/2/1
N2 - We investigated the application of titanium nitride (TiN) thin film as the coating material for atomic force microscope (AFM) probes. TiN exhibits high hardness, chemical stability, and relative high electrical conductivity that are ideal for protective coating of conductive AFM probes. The TiN thin films were deposited by ion beam sputter deposition (IBSD) using a Ti target with nitrogen as the reactive gas and argon as the carrier gas. The nitrogen partial pressure affected the composition, crystallinity, and resistivity of TiN films - increase of N2/Ar flow rate ratio reduced the TiN composition and crystallinity. Consequently, the electrical resistivity of TiN coating increased. The profiles of AFM probe tips before and after TiN thin film (∼ 30 nm) deposition were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The tribological properties of TiN coated probes were evaluated by AFM scans and hard-contact electrical measurements; the performances were compared with commercial probes with metal coatings. In this work, we reported on the performance of TiN thin films as a functional coating for conductive AFM probes, and discussed the relation between electrical/tribological properties and IBSD process parameters for TiN thin films.
AB - We investigated the application of titanium nitride (TiN) thin film as the coating material for atomic force microscope (AFM) probes. TiN exhibits high hardness, chemical stability, and relative high electrical conductivity that are ideal for protective coating of conductive AFM probes. The TiN thin films were deposited by ion beam sputter deposition (IBSD) using a Ti target with nitrogen as the reactive gas and argon as the carrier gas. The nitrogen partial pressure affected the composition, crystallinity, and resistivity of TiN films - increase of N2/Ar flow rate ratio reduced the TiN composition and crystallinity. Consequently, the electrical resistivity of TiN coating increased. The profiles of AFM probe tips before and after TiN thin film (∼ 30 nm) deposition were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The tribological properties of TiN coated probes were evaluated by AFM scans and hard-contact electrical measurements; the performances were compared with commercial probes with metal coatings. In this work, we reported on the performance of TiN thin films as a functional coating for conductive AFM probes, and discussed the relation between electrical/tribological properties and IBSD process parameters for TiN thin films.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.tsf.2012.07.066
DO - 10.1016/j.tsf.2012.07.066
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84873729775
SN - 0040-6090
VL - 529
SP - 317
EP - 321
JO - Thin Solid Films
JF - Thin Solid Films
ER -