Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
The resistivities of Al thin films with added Sc or Tb largely decrease at over 350 °C. They reach to 5 -7 μΩcm after annealing at 450 °C, together with the segregation of fine Al3RE (RE = Sc or Tb) metallic compounds. However, the temperatures at which resistivity starts to decrease largely are much lower for Al-SC alloy films (150 °C) than for Al-Tb ones (250 °C). Furthermore, thermal defects of hillocks or whiskers start to appear on the film surface after annealing at 200 °C and 450 °C for Al-Sc and Al-Tb alloy films, respectively. It was revealed that the further addition of Zr to these binary alloy films largely retards a large decrease of resistivities on annealing and enhances the formation of hillocks or whiskers. On the contrary, the addition of Cu to Al-Tb or Al-Sc films significantly suppresses the formation of thermal defects and shows relatively low resistivities after annealing at 350 °C.