Metal nitride material for thermistor, method for producing same, and film type thermistor sensor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9831019-B2
Application number	US-201314652653-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 4, 2013
Priority date	Dec 21, 2012
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

Provided are a metal nitride material for a thermistor, which has a high reliability and a high heat resistance and can be directly deposited on a film or the like without firing, a method for producing the same, and a film type thermistor sensor. The metal nitride material for a thermistor consists of a metal nitride represented by the general formula: Cr x Al y (N 1-w O w ) z (where 0.70≦y/(x+y)≦0.95, 0.45≦z≦0.55, 0<w≦0.35, and x+y+z=1), wherein the crystal structure thereof is a hexagonal wurtzite-type single phase.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A thermistor, consisting of a metal nitride represented by the general formula: Cr x Al y (N 1-w O w ) z (where0.70≦y/(x+y) ≦0.95, 0.45≦z ≦0.55, 0<w ≦0.35, and x+y+z =1), wherein the crystal structure of the metal nitride is a hexagonal wurtzite-type single phase.

2. The thermistor according to claim 1 , wherein the metal nitride material is deposited as a film and is a columnar crystal extending in a vertical direction with respect to the surface of the film.

3. The thermistor according to claim 1 , wherein the metal nitride material is deposited as a film and is more strongly oriented along a c-axis than an a-axis in a vertical direction with respect to the surface of the film.

4. A film type thermistor sensor comprising:
an insulating film;
a thin film thermistor portion formed by the thermistor according to claim 1 on the insulating film; and
a pair of pattern electrodes formed at least on the top or the bottom of the thin film thermistor portion.

5. The film type thermistor sensor according to claim 4 , wherein at least a portion of a pair of the pattern electrodes that is bonded to the thin film thermistor portion is made of Cr.

6. A method for producing the thermistor according to claim 1 , the method comprising a deposition step of performing film deposition by reactive sputtering in a nitrogen- and oxygen-containing atmosphere using a Cr-Al alloy sputtering target.

7. The method for producing the thermistor according to claim 6 , wherein the sputtering gas pressure during the reactive sputtering is set to less than 0.67 Pa.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Materials Corp

Inventors

• Fujita Toshiaki
• Tanaka Hiroshi
• Nagatomo Noriaki

Classifications

• C23C14/0641

  Nitrides (C23C14/0617 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C23C14/081

  of aluminium, magnesium or beryllium · CPC title

• C23C14/0036

  Reactive sputtering · CPC title

• C23C14/0042

  Controlling partial pressure or flow rate of reactive or inert gases with feedback of measurements · CPC title

• C30B29/38

  Nitrides · CPC title