High Thermal Conductivity of Submicrometer Aluminum Nitride Thin Films Sputter-Deposited at Low Temperature

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is one of the few electrically insulating materials with excellent thermal conductivity, but high-quality films typically require exceedingly hot deposition temperatures (>1000 degrees C). For thermal management applications in dense or high-power integrated circuits, it is important to deposit heat spreaders at low temperatures (<500 degrees C), without affecting the underlying electronics. Here we demonstrate 100 nm to 1.7 mu m thick AlN films achieved by low-temperature (<100 degrees C) sputtering, correlating their thermal properties with their grain size and interfacial quality, which we analyze by X-ray diffraction, transmission X-ray microscopy, as well as Raman and Auger spectroscopy. Controlling the deposition conditions through the partial pressure of reactive N-2, we achieve an similar to 3x variation in thermal conductivity (similar to 36-104 W m(-1) K-1) of similar to 600 nm films, with the upper range representing one of the highest values for such film thicknesses at room temperature, especially at deposition temperatures below 100 degrees C. Defect densities are also estimated from the thermal conductivity measurements, providing insight into the thermal engineering of AlN that can be optimized for application-specific heat spreading or thermal confinement.