• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.288-289
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• 2011

Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) is a typical highly Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) currently used as a transparent electrode material. Most widely used deposition method is the sputtering process for ITO film deposition because it has a high deposition rate, allows accurate control of the film thickness and easy deposition process and high electrical/optical properties. However, to apply high quality ITO thin film in a flexible microelectronic device using a plastic substrate, conventional DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) processed ITO thin film is not suitable because it needs a high temperature thermal annealing process to obtain high optical transmittance and low resistivity, while the generally plastic substrates has low glass transition temperatures. In the room temperature sputtering process, the electrical property degradation of ITO thin film is caused by negative oxygen ions effect. This high energy negative oxygen ions(about over 100eV) can be critical physical bombardment damages against the formation of the ITO thin film, and this damage does not recover in the room temperature process that does not offer thermal annealing. Hence new ITO deposition process that can provide the high electrical/optical properties of the ITO film at room temperature is needed. To solve these limitations we develop the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) system. The MFSS is based on DMS and it has the plasma limiter, which compose the permanent magnet array (Fig.1). During the ITO thin film deposition in the MFSS process, the electrons in the plasma are trapped by the magnetic field at the plasma limiters. The plasma limiter, which has a negative potential in the MFSS process, prevents to the damage by negative oxygen ions bombardment, and increases the heat(-) up effect by the Ar ions in the bulk plasma. Fig. 2. shows the electrical properties of the MFSS ITO thin film and DMS ITO thin film at room temperature. With the increase of the sputtering pressure, the resistivity of DMS ITO increases. On the other hand, the resistivity of the MFSS ITO slightly increases and becomes lower than that of the DMS ITO at all sputtering pressures. The lowest resistivity of the DMS ITO is $1.0{\times}10-3{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ and that of the MFSS ITO is $4.5{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$. This resistivity difference is caused by the carrier mobility. The carrier mobility of the MFSS ITO is 40 $cm^2/V{\cdot}s$, which is significantly higher than that of the DMS ITO (10 $cm^2/V{\cdot}s$). The low resistivity and high carrier mobility of the MFSS ITO are due to the magnetic field shielded effect. In addition, although not shown in this paper, the roughness of the MFSS ITO thin film is lower than that of the DMS ITO thin film, and TEM, XRD and XPS analysis of the MFSS ITO show the nano-crystalline structure. As a result, the MFSS process can effectively prevent to the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment and supply activation energies by accelerating Ar ions in the plasma; therefore, high quality ITO can be deposited at room temperature.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.44 no.11
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• pp.43-50
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• 2007

We have investigated the electro-optical characteristics and reliability of LEDs with the Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) electrodes formed by different deposition methods: electron beam evaporation, sputtering, and hybrid method of electron beam evaporation and subsequent sputtering. The deposition method of the ITO electrode has significant influence on the electro-optical characteristics and reliability of LEDs. The LEDs with the ITO electrodes formed by sputtering and electron beam evaporation have problems caused by sputtering damage and increased electrical resistance, respectively, and the problems have been solved by the hybrid method.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.741-746
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• 2009

Compare to conventional Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) film deposition methods, cesium assisted sputtering method has been shown superior electrical, mechanical, and optical film properties. However, it is not easy to use cesium assisted sputtering method since ITO film properties are very sensitive to Cesium assisted equipment condition but their mechanism is not yet clearly defined physically or mathematically. Therefore, to optimize deposited ITO film characteristics, development of accurate and reliable process model is essential. For this, in this work, we developed ITO film deposition process model using neural networks and design of experiment (DOE). Developed model prediction results are compared with conventional statistical regression model and developed neural process model has been shown superior prediction results on modeling of ITO film thickness, sheet resistance, and transmittance characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.08a
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• pp.89-92
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• 2003

ITO thin films were deposited by RF-magnetron sputtering method and crystallization behavior of the films with and without external heating as a function of deposition time was examined. X-ray diffraction results indicated an amorphous state of the film when the deposition time is short about 10 min. When the deposition time was increased over 20 min development of crystallization of the films is observed. Because RF-sputtering transfers the high-energy to the growing film by energetic bombardment, it is believed that considerable activation energy for the crystallization of the film has transferred during deposition, which resulted in the crystallization of ITO thin films without external energy supply.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.55-59
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• 2005

ITO/Ni/ITO thin films were deposited on the PET by RF magnetron sputtering. Dependance of the process parameters such as deposition pressure, positions of Ni layer, on the transmittance, reflectance and sheet resistance of ITO/Ni/ITO film were investigated. When the Ni layer is placed at the center of ITO and deposition pressure is low, ITO/Ni/ITO films showed better optical and electrical properties. At these conditions, the transmittance, reflectance and sheet resistance of the ITO film were $90\%,\;0.38\%$ and $185\Omega/\Box$ respectively.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.62-69
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• 2022

Graphene has a large surface area to volume ratio and good mechanical and electrical property and biocompatibility. This study described the electrochemical deposition and reduction of graphene oxide on the surface of indium tin oxide (ITO) glass slide and electrochemical characterization of graphen-modified ITO. Cyclic voltammetry was used for the deposition and reduction of graphene oxide. The surface of graphen-coated ITO was characterized using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispesive X-ray spectroscopy. The electrodes were evaluated by performing cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The number of cycles and scan rate greatly influenced on the coverage and the degree of reduction of graphene oxide, thus affecting the electrochemical properties of electrodes. Modification of ITO with graphene generated higher current with lower charge transfer resistance at the electrode-electrolyte interface. Glucose oxidase was immobilized on the graphene-modified ITO and has been found to successfully generate electrons by oxidizing glucose.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.146-151
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• 2004

Indium tin oxide (ITO) is widely used to make a transparent conducting film for various display devices and opto-electric devices. In this study, ITO films on glass substrate were fabricated by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) assisted dc magnetron sputtering. A two-turn rf coil was inserted in the process chamber between the substrate and magnetron for the generation of ICP. The substrates were not heated intentionally. Subsequent post-annealing treatment for as-deposited ITO films was not performed. Low-temperature deposition technique is required for ITO films to be used with heat sensitive plastic substrates, such as the polycarbonate and acrylic substrates used in LCD devices. The surface roughness of the ITO films is also an important feature in the application of OLEDs along with the use of a low temperature deposition technique. In order to obtain optimum ITO thin film properties at low temperature, the depositions were carried out at different condition in changing of Ar and $O_2$ gas mixtures, ICP power. The electrical, optical and structural properties of the deposited films were characterized by four-point probe, UV/VIS spectrophotometer, atomic force microscopy(AFM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The electrical resistivity of the films was -l0$^{-4}$ $\Omega$cm and the optical transmittance in the visible range was ＞85%. The surface roughness ( $R_{rms}$) was -20$\AA$.>.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.92-97
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• 2015

The design of the glass-carrier was studied using simulations of the temperature distribution of an ITO deposition inline-sputter process. The temperature distribution was simulated in Heating Chamber 7, and in the ITO Deposition Chambers 8 and 9. The temperature distribution of the glass sheets was low in both the lower and upper lines. Moreover, it was observed that the temperature in Chamber 8 significantly affected the temperature in Chamber 9, and that the latter was hotter. The rear of the chambers were subjected to more heating than the fronts, so the temperature range at the back was wider. Redesigning the shape of the carrier made it possible to load more glass sheets on the glass carrier, and to make deposits on the ITO glass at higher temperature, over a wider area.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.10
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• pp.683-690
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• 2008

In order to develop transparent electrodes for high efficiency GaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs), the electrical and optical properties of the electron beam evaporated ITO contacts have been investigated as a function of the deposition temperature and flow rate of oxygen during the deposition. As the deposition temperature increases from $140^{\circ}C$ to $220^{\circ}C$, the resistivity of the ITO films decreases slightly from $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ to $3.3{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, meanwhile the transmittance of the ITO films significantly increases from 67% to 88% at the wavelength of 470 nm. When the flow rate of oxygen during the deposition increases from 2 sccm to 4 sccm, the resistivity of the ITO films increases from $3.6{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$ to $7.4{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, meanwhile the transmittance of the ITO films increases from 86% to 99% at 470 nm. Blue LEDs fabricated with the electron beam evaporated ITO electrode show that the ITO films deposited at $200^{\circ}C$ and 3 sccm of the oxygen flow rate give a low forward-bias voltage of 3.55 V at injection current of 20 mA with a highest output power.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.714-716
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• 2002

Indium tin oxide (ITO) was used as the top anode of top emission inverted organic light emitting diodes (TEIOLEDs). TEIOLEDs were fabricated by deposition of an aluminum bottom cathode, an N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-1, 1'-diphenyl-4, 4 1'-diamine (TPD) hole transport layer, a tris-8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum ($Alq_3$) emission layer, and an ITO top anode sequentially. ITO was deposited by r.f. magnetron sputtering without $O_2$ flow during the deposition. After the deposition, the deposited ITO layer was kept under oxygen atmosphere for the oxidation. The characteristics of the TEOILED were affected significantly by the post-deposition oxidation condition.