AlN thin film is highly valued for use as a high-temperature material because of its excellent heat resistance, thermal conductivity and high mechanical strength. In addition, it is known as a replacement material for ZnO, because it can be applied to surface acoustic wave elements and high-frequency filters using piezoelectric properties or sound velocity. In this study, an alternating sputtering method was used to fabricate an AlN thin film with excellent film quality. The c-axis orientation and residual stress of the fabricated AlN thin film were measured using an X-ray diffraction method. Nitrogen gas pressure and target electrode conversion time are important deposition conditions when producing a thin film using the alternating sputtering method. The AlN thin film fabricated on the glass substrate using the alternating planar magnetron sputtering method exhibited a crystal structure in which the c-axis was preferentially oriented in the normal direction of the substrate surface. The c-axis orientation was better when the target electrode switching time was short under the condition of low nitrogen gas pressure. Residual stress is tensile stress in the very low nitrogen gas pressure range (PN ≤ 0.3 Pa), compressive stress in the low nitrogen gas pressure range (0.3 < PN < 0.9 Pa), and in the high nitrogen gas pressure range (PN ≥ 0.9 Pa), it becomes tensile stress. Residual stress shows tensile stress when the switching time is short, tensile stress decreases as the switching time increases, and becomes compressive stress when the switching time is sufficiently long (300 to 600 s). Compared to the simultaneous sputtering of two targets, the use of the alternating sputtering method can produce a high-quality thin film with excellent c-axis orientation and low residual stress.

Aluminum nitride (AlN) has versatile and intriguing properties, such as wide direct bandgap, high thermal conductivity, good thermal and chemical stability, and various functionalities. Due to these properties, AlN thin films have been applied in various fields. However, AlN thin films are usually deposited by high temperature processes like chemical vapor deposition. To further enlarge the application of AlN films, atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been studied as a method of AlN thin film deposition at low temperature. In this mini review paper, we summarize the results of recent studies on AlN film grown by thermal and plasma enhanced ALD in terms of processing temperature, precursor type, reactant gas, and plasma source. Thermal ALD can grow AlN thin films at a wafer temperature of 150~550 oC with alkyl/amine or chloride precursors. Due to the low reactivity with NH3 reactant gas, relatively high growth temperature and narrow window are reported. On the other hand, PEALD has an advantage of low temperature process, while crystallinity and defect level in the film are dependent on the plasma source. Lastly, we also introduce examples of application of ALD-grown AlN films in electronics.