• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.663-668
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• 2012

In order to reduce the indium contents in transparent conducting oxide(TCO) thin films of $In_{1.6{\sim}1.8}Zn_{0.2}Sn_{0.2{\sim}0.4}O_3$ (IZTO), $In_{1.6}Zn_{0.2}Sn_{0.2}O_{3-{\delta}}$(IZTO) was prepared by replacing indium with Zn and Sn. The TCO films were deposited via RF-magnetron sputtering of the IZTO target at various deposition temperatures and its film characteristics were investigated. When deposited in an Ar atmosphere at $400^{\circ}C$, the electrical resistivity of the film decreased to $6.34{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ and the optical transmittance was 80%. As the deposition temperature increased, the crystallinity of the IZTO film was enhanced. As a result, the electrical conductivity and transmittance properties were improved. This demonstrates the possibility of replacing ITO TCO film with IZTO.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.81-85
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• 2017

$SnO_2/Ag/Nb_2O_5/SiO_2/SnO_2$ multilayer films were prepared on glass substrate by sequential using RF/DC magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The influence of top $SnO_2$ layer thickness on optical and electrical properties of the multilayer films was investigated. Experimentally measured results exhibit transmittances over 84.3 ~ 85.8% at 550 nm wavelength. As the top $SnO_2$ layer thickness increased from 40 to 55 nm, the sheet resistance (Rs) increased from 5.81 to $6.94{\Omega}/sq$. The Haacke's figure of merit (FOM) calculated for the samples with various $SnO_2$ layer thicknesses was a maximum at 45 nm ($35.3{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}^{-1}$).

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.54-62
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• 2009

${Co_3}{O_4}$ and ${Co_3}{O_4}$-based thick films with additives such as ${Co_3}{O_4}-{Fe_2}{O_3}$(5 wt.%), ${Co_3}{O_4}-{SnO_2}$ (5 wt.%), ${Co_3}{O_4}-{WO_3}$(5 wt.%) and ${Co_3}{O_4}$-ZnO(5 wt.%) were fabricated by screen printing method on alumina substrates. Their structural properties were examined by XRD and SEM. The sensitivities to iso-${C_4}H_{10}$, $CH_4$, CO, $NH_3$ and NO gases were investigated with the thick films heat treated at $400^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$ and $600^{\circ}C$. From the gas sensing properties of the films, the films showed p-type semiconductor behaviors. ${Co_3}{O_4}-{SnO_2}$(5 wt.%) thick film heat treated at $600^{\circ}C$ showed higher sensitivity to i-${C_4}H_{10}$ and CO gases than other thick-films. ${Co_3}{O_4}-{SnO_2}$(5 wt.%) thick film heat treated at $600^{\circ}C$ showed the sensitivity of 170 % to 3000 ppm iso-${C_4}H_{10}$ gas and 100 % to 100 ppm CO gas at the working temperature of $250^{\circ}C$. The response time to i-${C_4}H_{10}$ and CO gases showed rise time of about 10 seconds and fall time of about $3{\sim}4$ minutes. The selectivity to i-${C_4}H_{10}$ and CO gases was enhanced in the ${Co_3}{O_4}-{SnO_2}$(5 wt.%) thick film.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.254-259
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• 2003

In the fabrication process of transparent conducting thin films of the ATO (antimony-doped tin oxide) on a soda lime glass substrate by a sol-gel dip coating method, the effects of the $SiO_2$ buffer layer formed on the substrate and $N_2$ annealing treatment were investigated by XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) analysis. Optical transmittance and electrical resistivity of the 400 nm-thick ATO thin films which were deposited on $SiO_2$ buffer layer/soda lime glass and then annealed under nitrogen atmosphere were 84 % and $5.0\times 10^{-3}\Omega \textrm{cm}$ respectively. The XPS analysis confirmed that a $SiO_2$ buffer layer inhibited Na ion diffusion from the substrate, resulting in prohibiting the formation of a secondary phase such as $Na_2SnO_3$ and SnO and increasing Sb ion concentration and ratio of $Sb^{5+}/Sb^{3+}$ in the film. And it was also found that $N_2$ annealing treatment leads to the reduction of $Sn^{4+}$as well as $Sb^{5+}$ however the reduction of $Sn^{4+}$ is more effective and therefore consequently results in decrease in the electrical resistivity to produce an excellent electrical properties of the film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.304.1-304.1
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• 2014

Flat-panel displays have been growing as an essential everyday product in the current information/communication ages in the unprecedented speed. The forward-coming applications require light-weightness, higher speed, higher resolution, and lower power consumption, along with the relevant cost. Such specifications demand for a new concept-based materials and applications, unlike Si-based technologies, such as amorphous Si and polycrystalline Si thin film transistors. Since the introduction of the first concept on the oxide-based thin film transistors by Hosono et al., amorphous oxide thin film transistors have been gaining academic/industrial interest, owing to the facile synthesis and reproducible processing despite of a couple of shortcomings. The current work places its main emphasis on the binary oxides composed of ZnO and SnO2. RF sputtering was applied to the fabrication of amorphous oxide thin film devices, in the form of bottom-gated structures involving highly-doped Si wafers as gate materials and thermal oxide (SiO2) as gate dielectrics. The physical/chemical features were characterized using atomic force microscopy for surface morphology, spectroscopic ellipsometry for optical parameters, X-ray diffraction for crystallinity, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for identification of chemical states. The combined characterizations on Zn-Sn-O thin films are discussed in comparison with the device performance based on thin film transistors involving Zn-Sn-O thin films as channel materials, with the aim to optimizing high-performance thin film transistors.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.43-48
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• 2017

Conductive $Sn_xO_y$ thin films were fabricated via RF reactive sputtering using SnO:Sn (80:20 mol%) composite target. The composite target was used to produce a chemically stable composition of $Sn_xO_y$ thin film while controlling structural defects by chemical reaction between tin and oxygen. During sputtering pressure, RF power, and substrate temperature were fixed, and oxygen partial pressure was varied from 0% to 12%. Annealing process was carried out at $300^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour in vacuum. Except $P_{O2}=0%$ sample, all samples showed the transmittance of 80~90% and amorphous phase before and after annealing. Electrically stable p-type $Sn_xO_y$ thin film with high transmittance was only obtained from the oxygen partial pressure at 12%. The carrier concentration and mobility for the $P_{O2}=12%$ were $6.36{\times}10^{18}cm^{-3}$ and $1.02cm^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$ respectively after annealing.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2014

We fabricated undoped and Sb-doped $SnO_2$ thin films on glass substrates by a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) process. Undoped and 2 - 8 wt% $Sb_2O_3$-doped $SnO_2$ targets with a high density level of ~90% were prepared by the spark plasma sintering (SPS) process. Initially, the effects of the deposition temperature on undoped $SnO_2$ thin films were investigated in the region of $100-600^{\circ}C$. While the undoped $SnO_2$ film exhibited the lowest resistivity of $1.20{\times}10^{-2}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ at $200^{\circ}C$ due to the highest carrier concentration generated by the oxygen vacancies, 2 wt% Sb-doped $SnO_2$ film exhibited the lowest resistivity value of $5.43{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, the highest average transmittance of 85.8%, and the highest figure of merit of 1202 ${\Omega}^{-1}{\cdot}cm^{-1}$ at $400^{\circ}C$ among all of the doped films. These results imply that 2 wt% $Sb_2O_3$ is an optimum doping content close to the solubility limit of $Sb^{5+}$ substitution for the $Sb^{4+}$ sites of $SnO_2$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.688-688
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• 2013

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have attracted a lot of attention as a cheap transparent conducting oxide (TCO) material that can replace the expensive Sn-doped In2O3. In particular, AZO thin films are widely used as a window layer of chalcogenide-based thin film solar cells such as Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS). Mostly important requirements for the window layer material of the thin film solar cells are the high transparency and the low sheet resistance, because they influence the light absorption by the activelayer and the electron collection from the active layer, respectively. In this study, we prepared the AZO thin films by RF magnetron sputtering using a ZnO/Al2O3 (98：2wt%) ceramic target, and the effect of the sputtering condition such as the working pressure, RF power, and the working distance on the optical, electrical, and crystallographic properties of the AZO thin films was investigated. The AZO thin films with optimized properties were used as a window layer of CZTS thin film solar cells. The CZTS active layers were prepared by the electrochemical deposition and the subsequent sulfurization process, which is also one of the cost-effective synthetic approaches. In addition, the solar cell properties of the CZTS thin film solar cells, such as the photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) characteristics and the external quantum efficiency (EQE) were investigated.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.271-274
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• 2016

The reliability and reproducibility of gas sensors are very important for real applications. The influence of nanofiber length and sensing film thickness on the reliability and response of gas sensing characteristics was investigated. For this, the length of $SnO_2$ nanofibers was controlled by tuning ultrasonic treatment and the different thicknesses of sensing films were prepared by manipulating the amount of slurry deposition. The sensor prepared from long nanofibers (length: ${\sim}3.6{\mu}m$) showed the significant fluctuation of gas sensing characteristics when the film becomes thinner than $18{\mu}m$, while that prepared from short nanofibers (length: ${\sim}0.9{\mu}m$) showed reproducible sensor response and resistance regardless of film thickness. Moreover, the shortening of nanofibers enhanced the gas response ~2 times, which can be explained by the increase of chemiresistive fiber-to-fiber contacts. The reproducibility, gas response, and selectivity of $SnO_2$ nanofiber gas sensor could be controlled by tuning nanofiber length, film thickness, and catalyst loading.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.304-308
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• 2000

WO$_3$/SnO$_2$ceramics has been suggested as an effective sensing material for monitoring offensive odor or pollutant gases. This work was focussed on improving long-term stability, which has been a principal problem generally taking place in SnO$_2$semiconductor gas sensor. Miniaturized thick film gas sensors were fabricated by screen printing technique. Two types of sensor materials, W doped SnO$_2$and WO$_3$mixed SnO$_2$, were comparatively investigated on those long-term stability and sensitivites to several gases. Small amount of W doping(0.1 mol%) into SnO$_2$largely improved the long-term stability. The W(0.1 mol%) doped SnO$_2$gas sensor had higher sensitivities to both acetone and alcohol compared with WO$_3$(5 wt%) mixed SnO$_2$gas sensor. On the contrary, WO$_3$(5 wt%) mixed SnO$_2$gas sensor showed more superior sensitivity to cigarette smoke due to larger W content.