Enhancing the temperature coefficient of resistance of Pt thin film resistance-temperature-detector by short-time annealing

In this work, we report the influence of annealing time on the electrical properties of Pt thin film resistance-temperature-detectors (RTD) with Ti adhesion layers. It is found that the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of the Pt thin film RTD strongly depends on the air annealing time. Increasing the annealing durations from 1, 3, 10 to 60 min at 900 °C, the TCR tends to rise up firstly, and then drops down. A maximum TCR of 3.2 × 10−3/°C at 25 °C is achieved in the RTD annealed for 3 min, which is larger than most of other reported values. It is believed that the annealing time of 3 min may be sufficient to enlarge the grain size and to reduce the lattice defects, giving rise to the maximum TCR by decreasing the resistance at 25 °C. On the contrary, prolonging the annealing duration causes the interdiffusion and oxidation Ti significantly, which has been clearly evidenced by the depth analyses of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Such interdiffusion and oxidation of Ti reduces the TCR by increasing the resistance.