Thermodynamic Modeling of the Ti-Al-N System and Application to the Simulation of CVD Processes of the (Ti,Al)N Metastable Phase

• Published in: Chemical vapor deposition Vol. 5; no. 3; pp. 109 - 115
• Main Authors: Anderbouhr, Stéphanie, Gilles, Sandra, Blanquet, Elisabeth, Bernard, Claude, Madar, Roland
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH 01.06.1999; WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH; Wiley-VCH
• Subjects: Chemical vapor deposition (including plasma-enhanced cvd, mocvd, etc.); Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; CVD; Exact sciences and technology; Materials science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Physics; Process simulation; Thermodynamics; TiAlN; Phase diagrams; Inorganic compounds; Metastable phases; Transition element compounds; Organometallic compounds; Theoretical study; Operating mode; Crystal growth from vapors; Coatings; MOCVD; Precursor; Titanium nitrides; CVD; Thermodynamic model; Chlorides; Aluminium nitrides; Low pressure; Phase stability
• ISSN: 0948-1907; 1521-3862
• DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1521-3862(199906)5:3<109::AID-CVDE109>3.0.CO;2-0

Owing to its numerous technological applications in the fields of integrated circuits and protective coatings, the TiAlN system has aroused increasing interest. The purpose of this paper is to propose a thermodynamic model and simulate its processing conditions. The calculation and optimization of the TiAlN ternary phase diagram was performed as the first step to modeling two competitive CVD processes used for the processing of titanium aluminum nitride coatings: low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) and metal‐organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Thermodynamic simulations of the processes have been used to investigate the effect of varying operating parameters and to predict the nature of the phases present at equilibrium. Calculations were then made on the TiAlNClHAr and TiAlNCHAr chemical systems, corresponding to the two CVD processes. The TiAlN system has numerous applications for integrated circuits and protective coatings. However, the composition of the ternary system needs to be controlled in order to optimize layer characteristics for the different applications. Here thermodynamic calculations and simulations based on TiAlN phase diagrams (see Figure) are performed for LPCVD and MOCVD processes.