Electrical properties of sandwich structures with aluminum nitride layers

Electrical properties of adherent, low stressed aluminum nitride films prepared by magnetron sputtering have been studied. Arrhenius plots in the 100/spl deg/-170/spl deg/C range of temperature and transient current curves with different bias steps (at room temperature and 150/spl deg/C) have been performed. The conduction activation energy has been found and its dependence on subsequent annealings has been studied. A phenomenological conduction model at the ITO-AlN interface based on the shape of the transient curves has been elaborated. The conditions of behaviour of AlN as a highly insulating layer (sputtering conditions, thicknesses, annealing temperatures) have been established.