Characterizing a titanium nitride reactive deposition process using design of experiments

The authors outline the successful application of design of experiments in the characterization of a titanium nitride deposition process. As a result of using two central composite designs the characterization was performed in less than one third of the time that a similar characterization had taken using one factor at a time experimentation. This resulted in savings of manpower, equipment time, and materials. The process throughput was quadrupled and the titanium nitride uniformity was improved by 60%, while the resistivity and the stress of the film was reduced. Furthermore, a reduction in setup times was achieved because this single set of deposition parameters satisfies the requirements of four distinct applications, which previously required two sets of deposition parameters