A global argon and nitrogen plasma model for TaN and TiN reactive sputtering

A plasma model was established to calculate the discharge properties during TaN and TiN sputter deposition at low pressure conditions (about 2 mTorr). The plasma model is zero dimensional and includes major reactions between electrons and argon/nitrogen gases. The gas flow rates are varied for nitrogen (up to 9 sccm) and always 10 sccm for argon. The calculated electron temperature increases from 4.15 to 4.35 eV at 370 W magnetron power. The predicted electron density is about 109 cm−3, and increases with nitrogen flow rate. The predicted electron temperature and density values agree well with measurements for plasma at similar power level and pressure conditions. As nitrogen flow rate increases, the N atom and N2* densities both increase linearly, at the order of 1011 cm−3.