Disclosed herein are various methods of forming metal nitride layers on various types of semiconductor devices. In one example, the method includes forming a layer of insulating material above a semiconducting substrate, performing a physical vapor deposition process to form a metal nitride layer above the layer of insulating material, wherein the metal nitride layer has an intrinsic as-deposited stress level, and performing at least one process operation on the metal nitride layer to reduce a magnitude of the intrinsic as-deposited stress level in the metal nitride layer.