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M. Grosser, M. Münch, J. Brenner, M. Wilke, H. Seidel, C. Bienert, A. Roosen, U. Schmid:
"Study on microstructural, chemical and electrical properties of tantalum nitride thin films deposited by reactive direct current magnetron sputtering";
Microsystem Technologies - Micro- and Nanosystems - Information Storage and Processing Systems, 16 (2010), 5; 825 - 836.

The properties of tantalum nitride (TaNx) thin
films on silicon and low temperature co-fired ceramics
based substrates were investigated with respect to their
potential use for sensor elements operated under harsh
environmental conditions. For deposition reactive direct
current magnetron sputtering was applied at constant back
pressure (=0.9 Pa) and plasma power (=1,000 W). In all
experiments, the substrates were nominally unheated. The
films were investigated electrically by four point probing.
For morphological and chemical analyses, a large variety
of techniques such as focussed ion beam, scanning electron
microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray
spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and glow
discharge optical emission spectroscopy were used. Only
by combining all these techniques for analysing TaNx films
synthesised with varying nitrogen content in the deposition
chamber can a proper evaluation of the microstructure and
the chemical composition be done. Both the microstructure
and the chemical composition are influenced strongly with
a resulting effect on the electrical film properties.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00542-009-0993-0