• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.629-635
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• 2010

Abstract In this study characteristics of Al-doped ZnO thin film by HIPIMS (High power impulse sputtering) are discussed. Deposition speed of HIPIMS with conventional balanced magnetic field is measured at about 3 nm/min, which is 30% of that of conventional RF sputtering process with the same working pressure. To generate additional magnetic flux and increase sputtering speed, electromagnetic coil is mounted at the back side of target. Under unbalanced magnetic flux from electromagnet with 1.5A coil current, deposition speed of AZO thin film is increased from 3 nm/min to 4.4 nm/min. This new value originates from the decline of particles near target surface due to the local magnetic flux going toward substrate from electromagnet. AZO film sputtered by HIPIMS process shows very smooth and dense film surface for which surface roughness is measured from 0.4 nm to 1 nm. There are no voids or defects in morphology of AZO films with varying of magnetic field. When coil current is increased from 0A to 1A, transmittance of AZO thin film decreases from 80% to 77%. Specific resistance is measured at about $2.9{\times}10-2\Omega{\cdot}cm$. AZO film shows C-axis oriented structure and its grain size is calculated at about 5.3 nm, which is lower than grain size in conventional sputtering.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.101-105
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• 2015

ZnO is gathering great interest for large square optoelectrical devices of flat panel display (FHD) and solar cell as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO). Herewith, Mg and IIIA (Al, In) co-doped ZnO films were prepared on SLG substrate using RF magnetron sputtering system. The effect of variation of atomic weight % of Mg and ZnO have been investigated. The atomic weight % Al and In are of 3% and kept constant throughout. The numbers of samples were prepared according to their different contents, which are $M_{3%}AZO_{94%}$, $M_{4%}AZO_{93%}-(MAZO)$ and $M_{3%}IZO_{94%}$, $M_{4%}IZO_{93%}-(MIZO)$ respectively. A RF power of 225 W and working pressure of 6 m Torr was used for the deposition at $300^{\circ}C$. All of the two thin film show good uniformity in field emission scanning electron microscopy image. $M_{3%}AZO_{94%}$ thin film shows overall better performance among the all. The film shows the best lowest resistivity, carrier concentration, mobility and Sheet resistance and is found to be are of $8.16{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, $4.372{\times}10^{20}/cm^3$, $17.5cm^2/vs$ and $8.9{\Omega}/sq$ respectively. Also $M_{3%}AZO_{94%}$ thin film shows the relatively high optical band gap energy of 3.7 eV with high transmittance more than 80% in visible region required for the better solar cell performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.138-138
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• 2009

Al, Ga and In doped ZnO thin film were prepared by faing targets sputtering as a function of oxygen gas contents at R.T. Base pressure was $2{\times}10^{-6}torr$, and working pressure was 1mTorr. The properties of thin films on the electrical and optical properties of the deposited films were investigated by using a four-point probe (Chang-min), a Hall Effect measurement (Ecopia) and an UV/VIS spectrometer (HP). The minimum resistivities of AZO, GZO and IZO thin film were $6.5{times}10^{-4}[{\Omega}-cm],5.5{\times}10^{-4}[{\Omega}-cm]$ and $4.29{\times}10^{-4}[{\Omega}-cm]$. The average transmittance of over 80% was seen in the visible range.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.213-220
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• 2009

The optimal condition of low temperature deposition of transparent conductive Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films is studied by RF magnetron sputtering method. To achieve enhanced-electrical property and good crystallites quality, we tried to deposit on glass using a two-step growth process. This process was to deposit AZO buffer layer with optimal growth condition on glass in-situ state. The AZO film grown at rf 120 W on buffer layer prepared at RF $50{\sim}60\;W$ shows the electrical resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, Carrier concentration $1.22{\times}10^{21}/cm^3$, and mobility $9.9\;cm^2/Vs$ in these results, The crystallinity of AZO film on buffer layer was similar to that of AZO film on glass with no buffer later but the electrical properties of the AZO film were 30% improved than that of the AZO film with no buffer layer. Therefore, the cause of enhanced electrical properties was explained to be dependent on degree of crystallization and on buffer layer's compressive stress by variation of $Ar^+$ ion impinging energy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.194-194
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• 2008

Boron doped ZnO:Al(AZOB) thin films were prepared on glass substrates by dc magnetron sputtering. Influence of the annealing treatment on the electrical and optical properties of AZOB thin films were investigated. The lowest resistivity of $1.6\times10^{-3}\Omega$-cm was obtained at an annealing temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. The average transmittance of the films is over 80% in the visible range. It was also shown that by introducing boron impurity into AZO system improve the uniformity, the resistivity, and thermal stability of ZnO-based conducting thin films.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1343_1344
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• 2009

In this work, transparent conducting Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films were prepared on Corning glass substrate by RF magnetron sputtering using an Al-doped ZnO target (Al: 2 wt.%) at room temperature and all films were deposited with athickness of 150 nm. We investigated the effects of the post-annealing temperature and the annealing ambient on structural, electrical and optical properties of AZO films. The films were annealed at temperatures ranging from 300 to $500^{\circ}C$ in steps of $100^{\circ}C$ using rapid thermal annealing equipment in oxygen. The thickness of the film was observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and grain size was calculated from the XRD spectra using the Scherrer equation and their electrical properties were investigated using a hole measurement and the reflectance of AZO films was investigated by UV-VIS spectrometry.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.594-594
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• 2012

Al doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were deposited on textured glass substrate by magnetron sputtering method. Also, AZO films on textured glass were etched by hydrochloric acid (HCl). Average thickness of etched AZO films are 90 nm. We observed morphology of AZO film by AFM with various etchant concentration and etching time. Etched AZO films have low resistivity and high haze. The surface RMS roughness of AZO film was increased from 53.8 nm to 84.5 nm. The haze ratio was also enhanced in above 700 nm of wavelength due to light trapping effect was increased by rough AZO surface. The etched AZO films on textured glass are applicable to fabricate solar cell.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.590-594
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• 2012

ZnO nanowires were fabricated by hydrothermal synthesis technique for field emission device application. Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were prepared as seed layer of catalyst for the ZnO nanowire synthesis, for which conductivity of the seed layer was tried to be improved for enhancing the field emission property of the ZnO nanowire. The AZO seed layer revealed specific resistivity of $ 7.466{\times}10^{-4}[{\Omega}{\cdot}cm]$ and carrier mobility of 18.6[$cm^2$/Vs]. Additionally, upper tip of the prepared ZnO nanowires was treated by hydrochloric acid (HCl) to form a nanocone shape of ZnO nanowire, which was aimed for enhanced focusing of electric field on that and resultingly to improve field emission property of the ZnO nanowires. The ZnO nanowire with nanocone shape revealed decreased threshold electric field and increased current density than those of the simple ZnO nanowires.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.421.1-421.1
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• 2016

We studied indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) film grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) as transparent conductive oxide (TCO). A variety of TCO layer, such as ZnO:Al (AZO), InSnO2(ITO), Zn (O,S) etc, has been grown by various method, such as ALD, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), sputtering, laser ablation, sol-gel technique, etc. Among many deposition methods, ALD has various advantages such as uniformity of film thickness, film composition, conformality, and low temperature deposition, as compared with other techniques. In this study, we deposited indium-doped zinc oxide thin films using diethyl[bis(trimethylsilyl)amido]indium [Et2InN(TMS)2] as indium precursor, DEZn as zinc precursor and H2O as oxidant for ALD and investigated the optical and electrical properties of IZO films. As an alternative, this liquid In precursor would has several advantages in indium oxide thin-film processes by ALD, especially for low resistance indium oxide thin film and high deposition rate as compared to InCp, InCl3, TMIn precursors etc. We found out that Indium oxide films grown by Et2InN(TMS)2 and H2O precursor show ALD growth mode and ALD growth window. We also found out the different growth rate of Indium oxide as the substrate and investigated the effect of the substrate on Indium oxide growth.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.401-401
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• 2011

In this work, we deposited Al2O3doped ZnO (AZO) thin films by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering method with a $40^{\circ}$ tilted target, for application in the front layer of thin film solar cell. Wet chemical etching behavior of AZO films was also investigated. In order to optimize textured AZO films, oxalic acid ($C_2H_2O_4$)has been used as wet etchant of AZO film. In this experiment we used 0.001% concentration of oxalic acid various etching time, that showed an anisotropy in etching texture of AZO films. Electrical resistivity, Hall mobility and carrier concentration measurements are performed by using the Hall measurement, that are $6{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, $20{\sim}25cm^2/V-s$ and $4{\sim}6{\times}10^{20}$, respectively.