The influence of titanium nitride barrier layer on the properties of CNT bundles

The use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for electrical interconnections is hinder by the possibility of growing CNT directly onto metallization. The introduction of barrier layer between catalyst and metallization is thus essential to permit the direct growth of vertically aligned CNT bundles using CVD approaches. As a result, the resultant CNT bundle resistivity is not only a function of the densities and quality of CNT growth, but is also affected by the thickness and resistivity of the barrier layer. CNT is growth on different thickness of TiN with 2 different underlying layers (Au and SiO₂). It was observed that the length of CNT grown on Au is independent of TiN thickness, whereas the height decreases for Au underlayers case. In both scenarios, both have well aligned CNTs growth when the thickness of TiN is <; 90nm.