Metal nitride film for thermistor, process for producing same, and thermistor sensor of film type

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9978484-B2
Application number	US-201314389229-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2013
Priority date	Mar 30, 2012
Publication date	May 22, 2018
Grant date	May 22, 2018

Abstract

Provided are a metal nitride film for a thermistor, which has an excellent bending 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 film for a thermistor, which consists of a metal nitride represented by the general formula: Ti x Al y N z (where 0.70≤y/(x+y)≤0.95, 0.4≤z≤0.5, and x+y+z=1), wherein the crystal structure thereof is a hexagonal wurtzite-type single phase, and the peak ratio of the diffraction peak intensity of a-axis orientation (100) relative to the diffraction peak intensity of c-axis orientation (002) (i.e., the diffraction peak intensity of a-axis orientation (100)/the diffraction peak intensity of c-axis orientation (002)) is 0.1 or lower in X-ray diffraction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A thermistor comprising:
a metal nitride material,
the metal nitride material consisting of a metal nitride represented by the general formula: Ti x Al y N z , where 0.70≤y/(x+y)≤0.95, 0.4≤z≤0.5, and x+y+z=1,
wherein a crystal structure of the metal nitride material is a hexagonal wurtzite-type single phase, and
the peak ratio of the diffraction peak intensity of a-axis orientation relative to the diffraction peak intensity of c-axis orientation is 0.1 or lower in X-ray diffraction.

2. A film type thermistor sensor, comprising:
an insulating film;
a thin film thermistor portion made of according to claim 1 formed on the insulating film; and
a pair of pattern electrodes formed at least on or under the thin film thermistor portion.

3. A method for producing the thermistor according to claim 1 , the method comprising a deposition step of performing deposition by reactive sputtering in a nitrogen-containing atmosphere using a Ti—Al alloy sputtering target,
wherein the sputtering gas pressure during the reactive sputtering is set to 0.41 Pa or lower.

Assignees

• Mitsubishi Materials Corp

Inventors

• Tanaka Hiroshi
• Fujita Toshiaki
• Nagatomo Noriaki
• Fujiwara Kazutaka
• Inaba Hitoshi

Classifications

• G01K7/22

  the element being a non-linear resistance, e.g. thermistor (G01K7/26 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01K7/226

  using microstructures, e.g. silicon spreading resistance · CPC title

• H01C7/008 Primary

  Thermistors (H01C7/02 - H01C7/06 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01C7/04

  having negative temperature coefficient · CPC title

• H01C17/12

  by sputtering · CPC title