• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.242-247
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• 2012

Yb-doped ITO (ITO:Yb) films were deposited on unheated non-alkali glass substrates by magnetron cosputtering using two cathodes (DC, RF) equipped with the ITO and $Yb_2O_3$ target, respectively. The composition of the ITO:Yb films was controlled by adjusting the RF powers from 0 W to 480 W in 120 W steps with the DC power fixed at 70 W. The ITO:Yb films had a higher crystallization temperature ($200^{\circ}C$) than that of the ITO films ($170^{\circ}C$), which was attributed to both larger ionic radius of $Yb^{3+}$ and higher bond enthalpy of $Yb_2O_3$, compared to ITO. This amorphous ITO:Yb film post-annealed at $170^{\circ}C$ showed a resistivity of $5.52{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, indicating that a introduction of Yb increased resistivity of the ITO film. However, these amorphous ITO:Yb films showed a high etching rate, fine pattering property, and a very smooth surface morphology above the crystallization temperature of the amorphous ITO films (about $170^{\circ}C$). The transmittance of all films was >80% in the visible region.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.55-71
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• 2017

Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO), especially Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) films are almost prepared by DC magnetron sputtering because of the advantage of obtaining homogeneous large area coatings with high reproducibility. The purpose of this report is describe a detailed investigation of key factors dominating electrical and structural properties of sputtered ITO films. It was confirmed that crystallinity and electrical properties of ITO films were strongly depend on the sputtering pressure and kinetic energy of sputtered particles which are expected to have a close relation with the transport processes between target and substrate. And also, nodule formation on the ITO target was suppressed by both $CaCO_3$ addition and decreasing micro-pore in the target. On the other hand, we focused on the characteristics of amorphous TCO film to use as transparent electrode for various applications. To realize high thermoelectric performance, it was tried to control both high electrical conductivity and low thermal conductivity for the amorphous IZO:Sn films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.351.2-351.2
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• 2014

Indium tin oxide (ITO) has a lot of variations of its properties because it is basically in an amorphous state. Therefore, the differences in composition ratio of ITO can result in alteration of electrical properties. Normally, ITO is considered as transparent conductive oxide (TCO), possessing excellent properties for the optical and electrical devices. Quantitatively, TCO has transparency over 80 percent within the range of 380nm to 780nm, which is visible light although its specific resistance is less than $10-3{\Omega}/cm$. Thus, the solar cell is the best example for which ITO has perfectly matching profile. In addition, when ITO is used as transparent conductive electrode, this material essentially has to have a proper work function with contact materials. For instance, heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cell could have both front ITO and backside ITO. Because each side of ITO films has different type of contact materials, p-type amorphous silicon and n-type amorphous silicon, work function of ITO has to be modified to transport carrier with low built-in potential and Schottky barrier, and approximately requires variation from 3 eV to 5 eV. In this study, we examine the change of work function for different sputtering conditions using ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS). Structure of ITO films was investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Optical transmittance of the films was evaluated by using an ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.107-109
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• 2000

The crystallization process and the electrical properties of amorphous tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) films have been studied in contrast with those of undoped indium oxide (IO) films. Amorphous ITO and IO films were prepared by magnetron sputtering succeeded by annealing in the air at various temperatures. ITO films showed higher crystallization temperature compared with that of IO films, suggesting an excess free energy caused by the repulsion between the active donors ($Sn^{4+}$). The analysis of the electrical properties alternated with the phased annealing of films provided essential information for understanding the conduction mechanisms of ITO. It was also revealed that the amorphous IO/ITO films showed oxidation around $100^{\circ}C$ in contrast with crystalline IO/ITO films with the oxidation temperature above $200^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.20-24
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• 2015

This study was explained the correlation between the O 1s spectra and the crystallization of ITO thin films. The crystal structure of ITO thin films changed with various annealing temperatures and annealing methods such as atmosphere or vaccum conditions. The amorphous structure observed from XRD pattern showed the O 1s spectra with 531.2 eV, and the crystal structure of annealed ITO films analyzed by XRD pattern had the O 1s spectra of 529.8 eV as lower binding energy then the 531.2 eV. Oxygen in view of ITO films was related to the crystallization, and the ITO films annealed in an atmosphere pressure showed higher crystal structure than the ITO annealed in a vaccum. It was indicated that the amorphous structure had higher binding energy than the crystal structure analyzed by O 1s spectra of ITO films.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1998.07e
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• pp.1761-1763
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• 1998

ITO(Iridium-Tin Oxide) thin film, as discharge electrodes in AC PDP, should have low resistivity and high transparency. Regarded as a high deposition rate method, the ITO thin film fabricated by the facing target sputtering system has been studied in this paper. The electrical property of the ITO film deposited below $150^{\circ}C$ is not satisfied. The SEM pictures show that the ITO films deposited below $150^{\circ}C$ are amorphous. After being annealed the amorphous ITO films become crystalline, and for this reason, the electrical property of amorphous ITO films can be effectively improved by annealing process. An ITO film with the resistivity as low as $1.99{\times}10^{-4}$ and transparency above 85% has be gotten after vacuum annealing at $300^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours while deposited at $75^{\circ}C$. The corresponding deposition rate is $220{\AA}/min$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1044-1049
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• 2006

We reported on characteristics of the fluorescent OLED fabricated on commercial ITO/glass and BCS grown IZO/glass substrate, respectively. The amorphous IZO anode film grown by box cathode sputtering(BCS) exhibited similar electrical and optical characteristics to commercial ITO anode even though it was deposited at room temperature. In addition, the amorphous IZO anode showed higher workfunction (5.2 eV) than that of the commercial ITO anode (5.0 eV) after ozone treatment for 10 min. Furthermore, fluorescent OLED fabricated on amorphous IZO anode film showed improved current-voltage-luminance characteristics, external quantum efficiency and power efficiency en contrast with fluorescent OLED fabricated on commercial ITO anode film. It was thought that smooth surface and high workfunction of amorphous IZO anode lead to more efficient hole injection by reduction of interface barrier height between anode and organic layers.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.490-496
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• 2006

ITO monolayer and ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer thin films are prepared by D.C. magnetron sputtering method. Ag layer was inserted for applying ITO to a flexible substrate at low temperature. Carrier concentration and carrier mobility of ITO and ITO/Ag/ITO thin films were measured, the transmittance of them also was done. The amorphous phase was confirmed to be combined in addition to (400) and (440) peaks from XRD result of ITO thin film. As the substrate temperature increased, the preferred orientation of (400) appeared. From the result of application of Ag layer at room temperature, the growth of columnar structure was inhibited, and the amorphous phase formed mostly. The ITO/Ag/ITO thin film represented the transmittance of above 80% when the thickness of Ag layer was 50 ${\AA}$, and the concentration of carrier increased up to above 10 times than that of ITO thin film. Finally, since very low resistance of 3.9${\Omega}/{\square}$ was observed, the effective application of low temperature process is expected to be possible for ITO thin film.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.552-557
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• 2006

Electrical, optical, surface, and structural properties of amorphous indium-zinc-oxide (a-IZO) grown by box cathode sputtering (BCS) were compared with crystalline indium-tin-oxide (c-ITO) anode films grown by conventional DC sputtering (DCS). Although x-ray diffraction plot of BCS-grown IZO film shows amorphous structure, the optical and electrical properties of a-IZO is comparable to those of c-ITO film. In particular, BCS-grown IZO films shows very smooth surface without defects such as pin hole and cracks because most of the energy of the sputtered atoms was confined in high density plasma region in box cathode gun. Furthermore polymer organic light emitting diodes (POLED) with the a-IZO anode film shows better electrical properties than that of POLED with the c-ITO anode film due to high work function and smooth surface of a-IZO. This suggested that BCS-grown a-IZO film is promising anode materials substituting conventional c-ITO anode in OLED and flexible displays.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.352.1-352.1
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• 2014

Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) films are the most extensively studied and commonly used as ones of TCO films. The ITO films having a high electric conductivity and high transparency are easily fabricated on glass substrate at a substrate temperature over $250^{\circ}C$. However, glass substrates are somewhat heavy and brittle, whereas plastic substrates are lightweight, unbreakable, and so on. For these reasons, it has been recently suggested to use plastic substrates for flexible display application instead of glass. Many reaearchers have tried to produce high quality thin films at rood temperatures by using several methods. Therefore, amorphous ITO films excluding thermal process exhibit a decrease in electrical conductivity and optical transparency with time and a very poor chemical stability. However the amorphous Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) offers several advantages. For typical instance, unlike either crystalline or amorphous ITO, same and higher than a-IGZO resistivity is found when no reactive oxygen is added to the sputter chamber, this greatly simplifies the deposition. We reported on the characteristics of a-IGZO thin films were fabricated by RF-magnetron sputtering method on the PEN substrate at room temperature using 3inch sputtering targets different rate of Zn. The homogeneous and stable targets were prepared by calcine and sintering process. Furthermore, two types of IGZO TFT design, a- IGZO source/drain material in TFT and the other a- ITO source/drain material, have been fabricated for comparison with each other. The experimental results reveal that the a- IGZO source/drain electrode in IGZO TFT is shown to be superior TFT performances, compared with a- ITO source/drain electrode in IGZO TFT.