Evaluation of residual stress in sputtered tantalum thin-film

[Display omitted] •Tantalum thin-films have been deposited by DC magnetron sputtering system.•Thin-film stress is observed to be strongly influenced by sputtering pressure.•Transition towards the compressive stress is ascribed to the annealing at 300°C.•Expose thin-film to air ambient or ion bombardment lead to a noticeable change in the residual stress. The influence of deposition conditions on the residual stress of sputtered tantalum thin-film has been evaluated in the present study. Films have been deposited by DC magnetron sputtering and curvature measurement method has been employed to calculate the residual stress of the films. Transitions of tantalum film stress from compressive to tensile state have been observed as the sputtering pressure increases. Also, the effect of annealing process at temperature range of 90–300°C in oxygen ambient on the residual stress of the films has been studied. The results demonstrate that the residual stress of the films that have been deposited at lower sputtering pressure has become more compressive when annealed at 300°C. Furthermore, the impact of exposure to atmospheric ambient on the tantalum film stress has been investigated by monitoring the variation of the residual stress of both annealed and unannealed films over time. The as-deposited films have been exposed to pure Argon energy bombardment and as result, a high compressive stress has been developed in the films.