Enhancing the thermal conductivity of polymer-assisted deposited Al2O3 film by nitrogen doping

Polymer-assisted deposition technique has been used to deposit Al₂O₃ and N-doped Al₂O₃（AlON） thin films on Si（100） substrates.The chemical compositions,crystallinity,and thermal conductivity of the as-grown films have been characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）,X-ray diffraction（XRD）,and 3-omega method,respectively. Amorphous and polycrystalline Al₂O₃ and AlON thin films have been formed at 700℃and 1000℃.The thermal conductivity results indicated that the effect of nitrogen doping on the thermal conductivity is determined by the competition of the increase of Al-N bonding and the suppression of crystallinity.A 67%enhancement in thermal conductivity has been achieved for the samples grown at 700℃,demonstrating that the nitrogen doping is an effective way to improve the thermal performance of polymer-assisted-deposited Al₂O₃ thin films at a relatively low growth temperature.