Claims
- 1. A method of depositing an aluminum film onto a substrate assembly, comprising:supplying an inert gas and a nitrogen source gas into a sputtering chamber, the chamber housing the substrate assembly and an aluminum target; and sputtering an aluminum film onto the substrate assembly, wherein the sputtered aluminum film includes nitrogen to suppress hillock formation such that the film has a surface roughness of less than about 500 Å.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein sputtering produces an aluminum film comprising aluminum grains and an aluminum nitride subphase.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the inert gas is Ar.
- 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the Ar gas flows into the chamber at a rate of about 25 sccm to 50 sccm.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the nitrogen source gas is N2.
- 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the N2 gas flows into the chamber at a rate of about 2 sccm to 7 sccm.
- 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising supplying H2 gas into the chamber.
- 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the H2 gas flows into the chamber at a rate that is at least about 15% of the inert gas flow.
- 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the H2 gas flows into the chamber at a rate of about 5 sccm to 50 sccm.
- 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the aluminum target is at least about 99% pure aluminum.
- 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the aluminum film comprises an atomic composition of about 2% to 10% nitrogen.
- 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the aluminum film comprises an atomic composition of about 5% to 8% nitrogen.
- 13. The method of claim 1, wherein sputtering is conducted until the aluminum film has a thickness of about 0.01 to 1 μm.
- 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the aluminum film comprises part of a field emission display device.
- 15. A hillock-suppressing, electrically conductive aluminum film in an integrated circuit, comprising aluminum grains and an atomic composition of about 2% to 10% nitrogen, wherein the film has a surface roughness of about 300 Å to 400 Å.
- 16. An electrically conductive aluminum wiring element, comprising aluminum grains and about 5 to 8% nitrogen in an aluminum nitride subphase, and having a resistivity of less than about 12 μΩ-cm and a surface roughness of less than about 500 Å, whereby the presence of the nitrogen substantially minimizes hillock formation.
REFERENCE TO GOVERNMENT CONTRACT
This invention was made with United States Government support under Contract No. DABT63-97-C-0001, awarded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). The United States Government has certain right in this invention.
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