• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.18 no.6
• /
• pp.440-446
• /
• 2009

Indium tin oxide(ITO) substrate is one of the key components of the touch panel and its sputtering process is dependent on the characteristics of various touch panel, such as driving type, size of panel, and the intended use. In this study, we optimized the sputtering condition of ITO film on polycarbonate(PC) by using in-line sputtering method for the application to resistive type touch panel. We varied the $O_2$/Ar gas ratio, sputtering power, pressure and moving speed of substrate to deposit ITO films at room temperature with the base vacuum of $1{\times}10^{-6}\;torr$. The sheet resistance and its uniformity, the transmittance, the thickness of the ITO film on PC substrate are investigated and analyzed. The optimized process parameters are as follows : the sheet resistance is $500{\pm}50\;{\Omega}$/□, the uniformity of sheet resistance is lower than 10%, the transmittance is higher than 87 % at 550nm, and the thickness is about 120~250. The optimized deposition conditions by in-line sputtering method can be applied to the actual mass production for the ITO film manufacturing technology.