Low temperature oxidation behavior of reactively sputtered TiN by x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy and contact resistance measurements

Abstract

Electronic and electrical contact applications of TiN require a detailed understanding of the surface chemistry behavior in a variety of operating environments. For electromechanical contacts, contact resistance is the figure of merit and is a strong function of the structure and chemistry of the surface region. Thin (on the order of a few monolayers) insulating or semiconducting overlayers on a metallic conductor can raise contact resistance several orders of magnitude. In this study low temperature (22–100 °C) oxidation kinetics of reactively sputtered Ti and TiNx coatings of varying composition exposed at three humidity levels have been examined by x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) depth profiling, angle resolved XPS, and contact resistance measurements. Equilibrium overlayer conductivities can be up to nine orders of magnitude greater for TiN1.0 than Ti metal.