• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
• /
• 제23권4호
• /
• pp.280-286
• /
• 2010

We have investigated the influence of rapid thermal annealing (RTA) temperature on properties of Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films deposited on glass substrate by using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. The RTA is performed in a nitrogen ambient in the temperature range from 300 to $600^{\circ}C$ for 1 minute in a rapid thermal annealer after growing the AZO thin films. The crystallographic structure and the surface morphology of AZO thin film are measured by using X-ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. The optical transmittance of the deposited thin films is examined in the wavelength range of 300-1100 nm, where the average transmittance is above the 90% in the visible and near-infrared regions. The optical bandgap is calculated from the Tauc's model, and it shows a significant dependence on the RTA temperature. As for the electrical properties of the thin films, the AZO thin film annealed at $400^{\circ}C$ shows the lowest electrical resistivity of $8.6{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$ and the Hall mobility of $11.3cm^2$/V-sec. These results suggest that the RTA temperature is an important parameter to influence on the structural, electrical, and optical properties of AZO thin films.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국전기전자재료학회 2004년도 춘계학술대회 논문집 디스플레이 광소자분야
• /
• pp.98-101
• /
• 2004

AZO(ZnO:Al) thin film were prepared by FTS(Facing Target Sputtering) system. Change the sputtering conditions, AZO thin film deposited the lower resistivity(<$10-4{\Omega}cm$) so it can use to be a display application electrode. In this study, the electrical and crystallographic effects of target type have been investigated. The crystal structure was studied by XRD and the resistivity of AZO thin film was obtained by the four-point probe.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국전기전자재료학회 2005년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.6
• /
• pp.432-433
• /
• 2005

In this study, Al doped ZnO(AZO) thin film were prepared on glass substrates by FTS(Facing Targets Sputtering) system. We investigated electrical, optical and structural properties of AZO thin film with the substrate temperature of the R.T, $100^{\circ}C$, $200^{\circ}C$ and the post-annealing. The crystallinity of AZO thin film was increased with increasing the substrate temperature and post-annealing temperature $600^{\circ}C$. The remarkable change of the resistivity with the substrate temperature didn't found and the resistivity with post-annealing was increased slightly.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국전기전자재료학회 2005년도 춘계학술대회 논문집 디스플레이 광소자 분야
• /
• pp.69-71
• /
• 2005

In this study, Al doped ZnO(AZO)thin film were prepared on glass substrates by FTS(Facing targets Sputtering) system. We investigated electrical.. optical and structural properties of AZO thin film under the substrate temperature of the R.T. $100^{\circ}C$, $200^{\circ}C$, respectively, From XRD measurements it was found the crystallization of AZO thin film was increased with increasing the substrate temperature.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국전기전자재료학회 2007년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.8
• /
• pp.403-404
• /
• 2007

We prepared the Al doped ZnO (AZO) thin film on polyethersulfon (PES) without any substrate heating by Facing Targets Sputtering (FTS) system. ZnO doped the content of Al 2 wt% was used and the sputtering conditions were gas pressure 1mTorr and input power 100W. The electrical, structural and optical properties of AZO thin films were investigated. To investigate the as-deposited thin film properties, we employed four-point probe, UV/VIS spectrometer, X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Hall Effect measurement system and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM).

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• 제15권4호
• /
• pp.207-212
• /
• 2014

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films were deposited on SiOC/Si wafer by an RF-magnetron sputtering system, by varying the deposition parameters of radio frequency power from 50 to 200 W. To assess the correlation of the optical properties between the substrate and AZO thin film, photoluminescence was measured, and the origin of deep level emission of AZO thin films grown on SiOC/Si wafer was studied. AZO formed on SiOC/Si substrates exhibited ultraviolet emission due to exciton recombination, and the visible emission was associated with intrinsic and extrinsic defects. For the AZO thin film deposited on SiOC at low RF-power, the deep level emission near the UV region is attributed to an increase of the variations of defects related to the AZO and SiOC layers. The applied RF-power influenced an energy gap of localized trap state produced from the defects, and the gap increased at low RF power due to the formation of new defects across the AZO layer caused by lattice mismatch of the AZO and SiOC films. The optical properties of AZO films on amorphous SiOC compared with those of AZO film on Si were considerably improved by reducing the roughness of the surface with low surface ionization energy, and by solving the problem of structural mismatch with the AZO film and Si wafer.

• 한국재료학회지
• /
• 제21권6호
• /
• pp.341-346
• /
• 2011

In this study, we inserted a Zn buffer layer into a AZO/p-type a-si:H layer interface in order to lower the contact resistance of the interface. For the Zn layer, the deposition was conducted at 5 nm, 7 nm and 10 nm using the rf-magnetron sputtering method. The results were compared to that of the AZO film to discuss the possibility of the Zn layer being used as a transparent conductive oxide thin film for application in the silicon heterojunction solar cell. We used the rf-magnetron sputtering method to fabricate Al 2 wt.% of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) film as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO). We analyzed the electro-optical properties of the ZnO as well as the interface properties of the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layer. After inserting a buffer layer into the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layers to enhance the interface properties, we measured the contact resistance of the layers using a CTLM (circular transmission line model) pattern, the depth profile of the layers using AES (auger electron spectroscopy), and the changes in the properties of the AZO thin film through heat treatment. We investigated the effects of the interface properties of the AZO/p-type a-Si:H layer on the characteristics of silicon heterojunction solar cells and the way to improve the interface properties. When depositing AZO thin film on a-Si layer, oxygen atoms are diffused from the AZO thin film towards the a-Si layer. Thus, the characteristics of the solar cells deteriorate due to the created oxide film. While a diffusion of Zn occurs toward the a-Si in the case of AZO used as TCO, the diffusion of In occurs toward a-Si in the case of ITO used as TCO.

• 한국반도체및디스플레이장비학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국반도체및디스플레이장비학회 2005년도 추계 학술대회
• /
• pp.93-96
• /
• 2005

In this study, AZO(ZnO:Al) thin film were Prepared by FTS(Facing Target Sputtering) system. The electrical, optical properties and crystalline of AZO thin film with thickness have been investigated. The thickness, transmittance, crystalline and electrical Properties of AZO thin film were measured by $\alpha$-step, UV-VIS spectrometer, hall effect measurement system, XRD and four-point probe, respectively. As a result, AZO thin film deposited with the transmittance over $80\%$ and the resistivity about $10^{-4}{\Omega}-cm$.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국진공학회 2013년도 제44회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
• /
• pp.688-688
• /
• 2013

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have attracted a lot of attention as a cheap transparent conducting oxide (TCO) material that can replace the expensive Sn-doped In2O3. In particular, AZO thin films are widely used as a window layer of chalcogenide-based thin film solar cells such as Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS). Mostly important requirements for the window layer material of the thin film solar cells are the high transparency and the low sheet resistance, because they influence the light absorption by the activelayer and the electron collection from the active layer, respectively. In this study, we prepared the AZO thin films by RF magnetron sputtering using a ZnO/Al2O3 (98：2wt%) ceramic target, and the effect of the sputtering condition such as the working pressure, RF power, and the working distance on the optical, electrical, and crystallographic properties of the AZO thin films was investigated. The AZO thin films with optimized properties were used as a window layer of CZTS thin film solar cells. The CZTS active layers were prepared by the electrochemical deposition and the subsequent sulfurization process, which is also one of the cost-effective synthetic approaches. In addition, the solar cell properties of the CZTS thin film solar cells, such as the photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) characteristics and the external quantum efficiency (EQE) were investigated.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
• /
• 제30권6호
• /
• pp.401-405
• /
• 2017

Because silicon thin film solar cells have a high absorption coefficient in visible light, they can absorb 90% of the solar spectrum in a $1-{\mu}m$-thick layer. Silicon thin film solar cells also have high transparency and are lightweight. Therefore, they can be used for building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems. However, the contact electrode needs to be replaced for fabricating silicon thin film solar cells in BIPV systems, because most of the silicon thin film solar cells use metal electrodes that have a high reflectivity and low transmittance. In this study, we replace the conventional aluminum top electrode with a transparent aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) electrode, the band level of which matches well with that of the intrinsic layer of the silicon thin film solar cell and has high transmittance. We show that the AZO effectively replaces the top metal electrode and the bottom fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate without a noticeable degradation of the photovoltaic characteristics.