This paper reports on the deposition and characterization of piezoelectric AlXSc1-XN (further: AlScN) films on Si substrates using AlSc alloy targets with 30 at.% Sc. Films were deposited on a Ø200 mm area with deposition rates of 200 nm/min using a reactive magnetron sputtering process with a unipolar-bipolar hybrid pulse mode of FEP. The homogeneity of film composition, structural properties and piezoelectric properties were investigated depending on process parameters, especially the pulse mode of powering in unipolar-bipolar hybrid pulse mode operation. Characterization methods include energy-dispersive spectrometry of X-ray (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and double-beam laser interferometry (DBLI). The film composition was Al0.695Sc0.295N. The films showed good homogeneity of film structure with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of AlScN(002) rocking curves at 2.2 ± 0.1° over the whole coating area when deposited with higher share of unipolar pulse mode during film growth. For a higher share of bipolar pulse mode, the films showed a much larger c-lattice parameter in the center of the coating area, indicating high in-plane compressive stress in the films. Rocking curve FWHM also showed similar values of 1.5° at the center to 3° at outer edge. The piezoelectric characterization method revealed homogenous d33,f of 11-12 pm/V for films deposited at a high share of unipolar pulse mode and distribution of 7-10 pm/V for a lower share of unipolar pulse mode. The films exhibited ferroelectric switching behavior with coercive fields of around 3-3.5 MV/cm and polarization of 80-120 µC/cm².
Keywords: AlScN; aluminum scandium nitride; ferroelectric; piezoelectric; piezoelectric thin films.