Thermal conductivity measurement and interface thermal resistance estimation using SiO2 thin film

In this paper, we describe an easy-to-use method to measure the thermal conductivity of thin films based on an electrical heating/sensing mechanism and a steady-state technique. The method used relative commonly used instruments, and without any signal processing circuit, is easy to be used in such thin-film thermal conductivity measurement. The SiO2 thin-film samples, prepared by thermal oxidation, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), and E-beam evaporator, were deposited on a silicon substrate. The apparent thermal conductivity, the intrinsic thermal conductivity of SiO2 films, and the total interface thermal resistance of the heater/SiO2/silicon system were evaluated. Our data showed agreement with those data obtained from previous literatures and from the 3 omega method. Furthermore, by using a sandwiched structure, the interface thermal resistance of Cr/PECVD SiO2 and PECVD SiO2/silicon were also separately evaluated in this work. The data showed that the interface thermal resistance of Cr/PECVD SiO2 (metal/dielectric) is about one order of magnitude larger than that of PECVD SiO2/silicon (dielectric/dielectric).