• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.12-16
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• 2020

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films were prepared onto transparent polyimide (PI) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The deposited ITO films were heat-treated at various temperatures (50, 100, 150, and 200℃). The effect of post heat-treatment temperature on structural, electrical and optical properties of ITO films were investigated. It was found that the as-deposited ITO films were amorphous and the degree of crystallinity and the grain size increased with an increasing heat-treatment temperature, which led to the increase in carrier concentration and mobility. The electrical resistivity of as-deposited ITO films was 2.73 × 10^-3 Ω·cm. With the heat-treatment temperature increasing from 50 to 200℃, the electrical resistivity decreased from 2.93 × 10^-3 to 1.21 × 10^-4 Ω·cm. The average transmittance (400~800 nm) of the ITO deposited PI substrates was decreasing with post heat-treatment temperature and was above 81 % for the temperatures 50~150℃ and decreased considerably to 78 % at 200℃.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.227-231
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• 2005

We have developed a microsystem with a capillary electrophoresis (CE) and an electrochemical detector (ECD). The microfabricated CE-ECD systems are adequate for a disposable type and the characteristics are optimized for an application to the electrochemical detection. The system was realized with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-glass chip and indium tin oxide electrode. The injection and separation channels (80 um wide$\ast$40 um deep) were produced by moulding a PDMS against a microfabricated master with relatively simple and inexpensive methods. A CE-ECD systems were fabricated on the same substrate with the same fabrication procedure. The surface of PDMS layer and ITO-coated glass layer was treated with UV-Ozone to improve bonding strength and to enhance the effect of electroosmotic flow. For comparing the performance of the ITO electrodes with the gold electrodes, gold electrode microchip was fabricated with the same dimension. The running buffer was prepared by 10 mM 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid (MES) titrated to PH 6.5 using 0.1 N NaOH. We measured olectropherograms for the testing analytes consisted of catechol and dopamine with the different concentrations of 1 mM and 0.1 mM, respectively. The measured current peaks of dopamine and catechol are proportional to their concentrations. For comparing the performance of the ITO electrodes with the gold electrodes, electropherograms was measured for CE-ECD device with gold electrodes under the same conditions. Except for the base current level, the performances including sensitivity, stability, and resolution of CE-ECD microchip with ITO electrode are almost the same compared with gold electrode CE-ECD device. The disposable CE/ECD system showed similar results with the previously reported expensive system in the limit of detection and peak skew. When we are using disposable microchips, it is possible to avoid polishing electrode and reconditioning.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.43-48
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• 2015

Silver nanowire (AgNW) is a material that is increasingly being used for transparent electrodes, as a substitute for indium tin oxide (ITO), owing to its flexibility, high transmittance to sheet resistance ratio, and simple production process. This study involves manufacturing large-area organic photovoltaic cells (OPVs) deposited on AgNW electrodes. We compared the efficiency of OPVs with ITO and AgNW electrodes. The results verified that an OPV with an AgNW electrode performed better than that with an ITO electrode. Furthermore, by using the knife coating method, we successfully fabricated large-area OPVs without the loss of efficiency. Use of AgNW instead of ITO demonstrated that an OPV could be produced on various substrates by the solution process method, dropping the productions costs significantly. Additionally, by using the knife coating method, the process time and amount of wasted solution are reduced. This leads to an increase in the efficient fabrication of the OPV.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.109-115
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• 2014

High power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS), also known as the technology is called peak power density in a short period, you can get high, so high ionization sputtering rate can make. Higher ionization of sputtered species to a variety of coating materials conventional in the field of improving the characteristics and self-assisted ion thin film deposition process, which contributes to a superior being. HIPIMS at the same power, but the deposition speed is slow in comparison with DC disadvantages. Since recently as a replacement for HIPIMS modulated pulse power (MPP) has been developed. This ionization rate of the sputtered species can increase the deposition rate is lowered and at the same time to overcome the problems to be reported. The differences between the MPP and the HIPIMS is a simple single pulse with a HIPIMS whereas, MPP is 3 ms in pulse length is adjustable, with the full set of multi-pulses within the pulse period and the pulse is applied can be micro advantages. In this experiment, $In_2O_3$ : $SnO_2$ composition ratio of 9 : 1 wt% target was used, Ar : $O_2$ flow rate ratio is 4.8 to 13.0% of the rate of deposition was carried out at room temperature. Ar 40 sccm and the flow rate of $O_2$ and then fixed 2 ~ 6 sccm was compared against that. The thickness of the thin film deposition is fixed at 60 nm, when the partial pressure of oxygen at 9.1%, the specific resistance value of $4.565{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, transmittance 86.6%, mobility $32.29cm^2/Vs$ to obtain the value.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.194-198
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• 2013

In this paper, we studied a p-type reflector based on indium tin oxide (ITO) for vertical-type ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV LEDs). We investigated the reflectance properties with different deposition methods. An ITO layer with a thickness of 50 nm was deposited by two different methods, sputtering and e-beam evaporation. From the measurement of the optical reflection, we obtained 70% reflectance at a wavelength of 382 nm by means of sputtering, while only 30% reflectance resulted when using the e-beam evaporation method. Also, the light output power of a $1mm{\times}1mm$ vertical chip created with the sputtering method recorded a twofold increase over a chip created with e-beam evaporation method. From the measurement of the root mean square (RMS), we obtained a RMS value 1.3 nm for the ITO layer using the sputtering method, while this value was 5.6 nm for the ITO layer when using the e-beam evaporation method. These decreases in the reflectance and light output power when using the e-beam evaporation method are thought to stem from the rough surface morphology of the ITO layer, which leads to diffused reflection and the absorption of light. However, the turn-on voltage and operation voltage of the two samples showed identical results of 2.42 V and 3.5 V, respectively. Given these results, we conclude that the two ITO layers created by different deposition methods showed no differences in the electric properties of the ohmic contact and series resistance.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.935-938
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• 2010

Indium-tin-oxide (ITO) films show a low electrical resistance and high transmittance in the visible range of an optical spectrum. The transparent electrodes have to get resistivity and sheet resistance less than $1{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}/cm$ and $10^3{\Omega}/sq$ respectively and transmittance over 80% at wavelength of 380nm~780nm. This study establishes DC magnetron sputtering process condition on ITO thin film by measuring electrical and optical properties of the thin film. As results, we obtained $300\;{\mu}{\Omega}cm$ resistivity of ITO films with good transmittance (above 90 %) under 90:10 wt% composition rate of $In_2O_3:SnO_2$. Also, we understood that the ITO thin film by DC magnetron sputtering depends on the deposition condition, especially substrate temperature, and the composition rate of $In_2O_3:SnO_2$ that is one of the most critical parameters was successfully optimized for high qualified transparent electrodes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.370-370
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• 2008

ITO 박막은 현재 차세대 디스플레이인 LCD, PDP, ELD 등의 평판 디스플레이의 화소전극 및 공통전극으로 가장 많이 적용되고 있는 소재이며, 최근에는 태양전지의 투명전극으로 그 용도가 더욱 증가되고 있다. 이러한 소자들의 투명 전도막으로 사용되기 위해서는 가시광선 영역에서 80% 이상의 높은 투과도와 낮은 면 저항을 가져야 한다. 광 투과도와 면 저항은 ITO 박막의 증착조건에 따라 변하게 되는데 본 연구에서는 DC 마그네트론 스퍼터링법을 이용하여 Indium-Tin Oxide (ITO) 박막을 제작하고, 제작된 ITO 박막의 전기적 특성과 광학적 특성을 측정하여 공정조건에 따른 박막의 특성 변화를 평가하였다. 증착 조건은 주로 기판 온도와 증착 시간을 변화시켰다. 본 실험에서는 $In_2O_3$ : $SnO_2$의 조성비가 9:1 비율의 순도 99.99% ITO 타겟을 사용하였으며, coming 1737 glass를 30$\times$30 mm 크기로 가공하여 기판온도와 증착시간을 변화시키면서 ITO 박막을 제조하였다. 예비실험을 통해 인가전력 50W, 초기 진공 $2\times10^{-6}$ Torr, 작업 진공 $3.5\times10^{-2}$ Torr, 기판과 타겟 사이의 거리를 10 cm로 고정하였다. 기판 온도는 히터를 가열하지 않은 상온 ($25^{\circ}C$)에서 $400^{\circ}C$까지의 범위에서 변화시켰고, 증착시간은 5분에서 30분까지의 범위에서 변화시켰다. 증착된 박막의 면 저항 촉정을 위해 4 point probe를 사용하였고, 홀 (hall) 계수 측정기 (HMS-300)를 이용하여 홀 계수를 측정하였으며, 또한 박막의 두께는 $\alpha$-step을 사용하여 측정하였다. ITO 박막의 상분석을 위해 XRD를 사용 하였고, SEM을 이용하여 미세구조를 관찰하였다. 실험 결과로는 기판온도 $400^{\circ}C$, 증착시간 15분 이상에서는 면 저항이 모두 $8\Omega$/$\Box$이하로 낮게 나왔으며, 투과율 또한 모두 80% 이상의 높은 투과도를 보였다. 또한 ITO박막의 전기 전도도는 캐리어 농도와 이동도의 측정을 통해 두 가지 인자들에 의해 비례되는 것을 확인하였다.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.52-60
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• 2001

The electrical and mechanical properties in indium-tin-oxide films deposited on polymer substrate were examined. The materials of substrates were polyethersulfone (PES) which have gas barrier layer and anti-glare coating for plastic-based devices. The experiments were performed by rf-magnetron sputtering using a special instrument and buffer layers. Therefore, we obtained a very flat polymer substrate deposited ITO film and investigated the effects of buffer layers, and the instrument. Moreover, the influences of an oxygen partial pressure and post-deposition annealing in ITO films deposited on polymer substrates were clarified. X-ray diffraction observation, measurement of electrical property, and optical microscope observation were performed for the investigation of micro-structure and electro-mechanical properties, and they indicated that as-deposited ITO thin films are amorphous and become quasi-crystalline after adjusting oxygen partial pressure and thermal annealing above $180^{\circ}C$. As a result, we obtained 20-25 ${\Omega}/sq$ of ITO films with good transmittance (above 80 %) of oxygen contents with under 0.2 % and vacuum annealing. Furthermore, using organic buffer layer, we obtained ITO films which have a rather high electrical resistance (40-45 ${\Omega}/sq$) but have improved optical (more than 85 %) and mechanical characteristics compared to the counterparts. Consequently, a prototype reflective color plastic film LCD was fabricated using the PES polymer substrates to confirm whether the ITO films could be realized in accordance with our experimental results.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 2009

Device quality indium tin oxide (ITO) films are deposited on glass substrates and ultra-thin diamond-like carbon films are deposited as a buffer layer on ITO by a pulsed Nd:YAG laser at 355 nm and 532 nm wavelength. ITO films deposited at room temperature are largely amorphous although their optical transmittances in the visible range are > 90%. The resistivity of their amorphous ITO films is too high to enable an efficient organic light-emitting device (OLED), in contrast to that deposited by a KrF laser. Substrate heating at $200^{\circ}C$ with laser wavelength of 355 nm, the ITO film resistivity decreases by almost an order of magnitude to $2{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}\;cm$ while its optical transmittance is maintained at > 90%. The thermally induced crystallization of ITO has a preferred <111> directional orientation texture which largely accounts for the lowering of film resistivity. The background gas and deposition distance, that between the ITO target and the glass substrate, influence the thin-film microstructures. The optical and electrical properties are compared to published results using other nanosecond lasers and other fluence, as well as the use of ultra fast lasers. Molecularly doped, single-layer OLEDs of ITO/(PVK+TPD+$Alq_3$)/Al which are fabricated using pulsed-laser deposited ITO samples are compared to those fabricated using the commercial ITO. Effects such as surface texture and roughness of ITO and the insertion of DLC as a buffer layer into ITO/DLC/(PVK+TPD+$Alq_3$)/Al devices are investigated. The effects of DLC-on-ITO on OLED improvement such as better turn-on voltage and brightness are explained by a possible reduction of energy barrier to the hole injection from ITO into the light-emitting layer.