Pulsed photothermal reflectance measurement of the thermal conductivity of sputtered aluminum nitride thin films

We report on measurements of the thermal conductivity of reactively sputtered aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films with different thickness, ranging from 100 nm to 1 mum, on silicon substrates. The measurements were made at room temperature using the pulsed photothermal reflectance technique. The thermal conductivities of the sample are found to be significantly lower than the single-crystal bulk AlN and increase with an increasing thickness. The thermal resistance at the interface between the AlN film and the silicon substrate is found to be about 7-8x10(-8) m(2) K/W. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.