• 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$\AA$.>.

• Proceedings of the Korean Ceranic Society Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.189.2-189
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• 2002

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.203-207
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• 2009

We have investigated the effect of ambient gases on the structural, electrical, and optical characteristics of ITO thin films intended for use as anode contacts in OLED (organic light emitting diodes) devices. These ITO thin films are deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering under different ambient gases (Ar, Ar+$O_2$, and Ar+$H_2$) at $300{^{\circ}C}$. In order to investigate the influences of the oxygen and hydrogen, the flow rate of oxygen and hydrogen in argon mixing gas has been changed from 0.5 sccm to 5 sccm and from 0.01 sccm to 0.25 sccm, respectively. The intensity of the (400) peak in the ITO thin films increased with increasing $O_2$, flow rate whilst the (400) peak was nearly invisible in an atmosphere of Ar+$H_2$. The electrical resistivity of the ITO thin films increased with increasing $O_2$ flow rate, whereas the electrical resistivity decreased sharply under an Ar+$H_2$ atmosphere and was nearly similar regardless of the $H_2$ flow rate. The change of electrical resistivity with changes in the ambient gas composition was mainly interpreted in terms of the charge carrier mobility rather than the charge carrier concentration. All the films showed an average transmittance of over 80% in the visible range. The OLED device was fabricated with different ITO substrates made with the configuration of ITO/$\alpha$-NPD/DPVB/$Alq_3$/LiF/Al in order to elucidate the performance of the ITO substrate. Current density and luminance of OLED devices with ITO thin films deposited in Ar+$H_2$ ambient gas is the highest among all the ITO thin films.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.233-236
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• 2000

The structural, electrical and chemical characteristics of Al alloy thin film with low impurity concentrations AlW deposited by using dc magnetron sputtering deposition are investigated for the applications as data bus line in the TFT-LCD panel. The deposited thin films show the decrease of resistivity and the increase of grain size after the RTA at $300^{\circ}C$ for 20 min.. Moreover, the resistivity of AlW does not show appreciable grain size dependence after RTA. It is concluded that the decrease of resistivity after RTA is due to the increase of grain size. The annealed AlW is found to be hillock free. And for investigating chemical attack in TFT-LCD etching processing the electric potential of AlW alloy for Ag/AgCl were investigated by cyclic voltammetry. When W wt.% of AlW alloy was higher than about 3%, the electric potential of AlW was more positive than ITO's. Therefore AlW alloy thin film can be propose to use for data bus line.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.179-183
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• 2005

A photodiode capable of obtaining a sufficient photo/ dark current ratio at both forward bias state and reverse bias state is proposed. The photodiode includes a glass substrate, an aluminum film formed as a lower electrode over the glass substrate, an alumina film formed as an insulator barrier over the aluminum film, a hydrogenated amorphous silicon film formed as a photo conduction layer over a portion of the alumina film, and a transparent conduction film formed as an upper electrode over the hydro-generated amorphous silicon film. A good quality alumina $(Al_2O_3)$ film is formed by oxidation of aluminum film using electrolyte solution of succinic acid. Alumina is used as a potential barrier between amorphous silicon and aluminum. It controls dark-current restriction. In case of photodiodes made by changing the formation condition of alumina, we can obtain a stable dark current $(\~10^{-12}A)$ in alumina thickness below $1000{\AA}$. At the reverse bias state of the negative voltage in ITO (Indium Tin Oxide), the photo current has substantially constant value of $5{\times}10^{-9}$ A at light scan of 100 1x. On the other hand, the photo/dark current ratios become higher at smaller thicknesses of the alumina film. Therefore, the alumina film is used as a thin insulator barrier, which is distinct from the conventional concept of forming the insulator barrier layer near the transparent conduction film. Also, the structure with the insulator thin barrier layer formed near the lower electrode, opposed to the ITO film, solves the interface problem of the ITO film because it provides an improved photo current/dark current ratio.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.401-402
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• 2007

The preparation and characteristics of ITO anode films grown using a linear facing target sputtering (FTS) technique for use in organic light emitting diodes (OLED) and flexible OLED is described. The electrical, optical, and work function of the ITO anode, which was prepared by linear FTS at room temperature, were comparable to those of commercial ITO anode films. In particular, linear FTS-grown ITO films shows very smooth surface without defects such as pin hole and cracks due to low substrate temperature. Furthermore OLED with the linear FTS-grown ITO anode film shows comparable electrical and optical properties to those of OLED with the commercial crystalline-ITO anode film. This suggested that linear FTS is promising thin film technology for preparing high quality anode film in OLEDs and flexible OLEDs.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.76-79
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• 2011

In order to improve efficiency and make a new material thin film, we prepared the Al-In-Sn-ZnO thin film on a glass substrate at room temperature using a Facing Target Sputtering (FTS) system. The FTS system was designed to array two targets that face each other. Two different kinds of targets were installed on the FTS system. We used an ITO ($In_2O_3$ 90wt%, $SnO_2$ 10wt%) target and an AZO (ZnO 98wt%, $Al_2O_3$ 2wt%) target. The AIZTO films were deposited using different applied powers to the targets. The as-deposited AIZTO thin films were investigated using a UV/VIS spectrometer, an X-ray diffratometer (XRD), and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.83-86
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• 2010

The transparent electrode properties of ITO films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering with process pressure were investigated. The ITO thin films was deposited on a glass substrate using a target with 3in diameter sintered at a ratio of $In_2O_3$ : $SnO_2$ (9 : 1). 200-nm-thick ITO thin films were manufactured by various process pressures ($2.0{\times}10^{-2}$, $7.0{\times}10^{-3}$ and $2.0{\times}10^{-3}$ Torr). The optical transmittance and resistivity of the deposited ITO thin films showed a relatively satisfactory result under $10^{-2}$ Torr. For high process pressure, the optical transmittance was below 80%, while for low process pressure, the optical transmittance was above 85%. As a result of of mobility, resistivity and carrier concentration by Hall measurement, we obtained satisfactory properties to apply into a transparent conducting thin film.

• Laser Solutions
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.17-23
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• 2011

Active thin films are ubiquitous in the manufacture of all forms of flat panel display (FPD). One of the most widely employed thin films is indium tin oxide (ITO) and metal films used electrically conductive materials in display industries. ITO is widely used for fabrication of LCD, OLED device, and many kinds of optical applications because of transparency in visible range and its high conductivity and metal films are also widely employed as electrodes in various electric and display industries. It is important that removing specific area of layer, such as ITO or metal film on substrate, to fabricate and repair electrode in display industries. In this work, we demonstrate efficient selective ablation process to ITO and aluminum film on glass using a femtosecond laser (${\lambda}p=1025nm$) respectively. The femtosecond laser with wavelength of 1025nm, pulse duration of 400fs, and the repetition rate of 100kHz was used for selectively removing ITO and Al on glass in the air. We can successfully remove the ITO and Al films with various pulse energies using a femtosecond laser.