• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2011년도 제40회 동계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.401-401
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• 2011

In this work, we deposited Al2O3doped ZnO (AZO) thin films by direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering method with a $40^{\circ}$ tilted target, for application in the front layer of thin film solar cell. Wet chemical etching behavior of AZO films was also investigated. In order to optimize textured AZO films, oxalic acid ($C_2H_2O_4$)has been used as wet etchant of AZO film. In this experiment we used 0.001% concentration of oxalic acid various etching time, that showed an anisotropy in etching texture of AZO films. Electrical resistivity, Hall mobility and carrier concentration measurements are performed by using the Hall measurement, that are $6{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$, $20{\sim}25cm^2/V-s$ and $4{\sim}6{\times}10^{20}$, respectively.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2014년도 제46회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.329.1-329.1
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• 2014

In this paper, we report electrical, optical and structural properties of Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films deposited at different substrate temperatures and pressures. The films were prepared by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering on glass substrates in argon (Ar) ambient. The X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the AZO films deposited at room temperature (RT) and 20 Pa were mostly oriented along a-axis with preferred orientation along (100) direction. There was an improvement in resistivity ($3.7{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}-cm$) transmittance (95%) at constant substrate temperature (RT) and working pressure (20 Pa) using the Hall-effect measurement system and UV-vis spectroscopy, respectively. Our results have promising applications in low-cost transparent electronics, such as the thin-film solar cells and thin-film transistors due to favourable deposition conditions. Furthermore our film deposition method offers a procedure for preparing highly oriented (100) AZO films.

• 반도체디스플레이기술학회지
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• 제15권3호
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• pp.30-34
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• 2016

We investigated magnetic field, discharged voltage, and as-deposited film uniformity at facing targets sputtering (FTS) system with magnetic field type: i) concentrated and ii) distributed magnetic field type. And Al doped ZnO (AZO) films were prepared at two magnetic field type such as concentrated magnetic field type and distributed magnetic field type, respectively. Discharge voltage at the distribution type is lower than concentration type due to low magnetic flux (middle magnetic flux: Concentration 1200 G and Distribution 600 G). The films deposited at the distributed magnetic field were more uniform than concentration type. All of prepared AZO films had a resistivity of under $10^{-4}[{\Omega}{\cdot}cm]$ and a transmittance of more than 85 % in the visible range.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.9-11
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• 2013

The AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films were deposited on polyethersulfone (PES) substrate by using facing target sputtering methods at room temperature. The AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films with polymer substrate had advantages, such as low sheet resistance, high optical transmittance in visible range and stable mechanical properties. From the results, the AZO/Ag/AZO multilayer films (50/12/50 nm) demonstrated a sheet resistance of 11 ${\Omega}/{\square}$ and average transmittance of 87% in visible range (wavelength of 380-770 nm). Moreover, the multilayer showed stable mechanical properties compared to the single-layered AZO sample during the bending test due to the existence of the ductile Ag metal layer.

• 반도체디스플레이기술학회지
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• 제16권2호
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• pp.27-31
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• 2017

AZO/Ag/AZO multi-layer films deposited on glass substrate by RF magnetron sputtering and thermal evaporator have a much better electrical properties than Al-doped ZnO thin films. The multi-layer structure consisted of three layers, AZO/Ag/AZO, the electrical and optical properties of AZO/Ag/AZO were changed mainly by thickness of Ag layers. The optimum thickness of Ag layers was determined to be $90{\AA}$ for high optical transmittance and good electrical conductivity. The Ag layers thickness $90{\AA}$ is an optical transmittance greater than 80% of visible light and the obtained multilayer thin film with the low resistivity of $8.05{\times}10-3{\Omega}cm$ and the low sheet resistance $5.331{\Omega}/sq$. Applying to TCO and Solar electrode will improve efficiency.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2010년도 추계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.55.1-55.1
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• 2010

Cost efficient and large area deposition of superior quality $Al_2O_3$ doped zinc oxide (AZO) films is instrumental in many of its applications including solar cell fabrication due to its numerous advantages over ITO films. In this study, AZO films were prepared by a highly efficient rotating cylindrical dc magnetron sputtering system using AZO target, which has a target material utilization above 80%, on glass substrates in argon ambient. A detailed analysis on the electrical, optical and structural characteristics of AZO thin films was carried out for solar cell application. The properties of films were found to critically depend on deposition parameters such as sputtering power, substrate temperature, working pressure, and thickness of the films. A low resistivity of ${\sim}5.5{\times}10-4{\Omega}-cm$ was obtained for films deposited at 2kW, keeping the pressure and substrate temperature constant at 3 mtorr and $230^{\circ}C$ respectively, mainly due to an increase in carrier mobility and large grain size which would reduce the grain boundary scattering. The increase in carrier mobility with power can be attributed to the columnar growth of AZO film with (002) preferred orientation as revealed by XRD analysis. The AZO films showed a high transparency of>87% in the visible wavelength region irrespective of deposition conditions. Our results offers a cost-efficient AZO film deposition method which can fabricate films with significant low resistivity and high transmittance that can find application in thin-film solar cells.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제23권8호
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• pp.469-475
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• 2013

Al-doped ZnO(AZO) thin films were synthesized using atomid layer deposition(ALD), which acurately controlled the uniform film thickness of the AZO thin films. To investigate the electrical and optical properites of the AZO thin films, AZO films using ALD was controlled to be three different thicknesses (50 nm, 100 nm, and 150 nm). The structural, chemical, electrical, and optical properties of the AZO thin films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field-emssion scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Hall measurement system, and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. As the thickness of the AZO thin films increased, the crystallinity of the AZO thin films gradually increased, and the surface morphology of the AZO thin films were transformed from a porous structure to a dense structure. The average surface roughnesses of the samples using atomic force microscopy were ~3.01 nm, ~2.89 nm, and ~2.44 nm, respectively. As the thickness of the AZO filmsincreased, the surface roughness decreased gradually. These results affect the electrical and optical properties of AZO thin films. Therefore, the thickest AZO thin films with 150 nm exhibited excellent resistivity (${\sim}7.00{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$), high transmittance (~83.2 %), and the best FOM ($5.71{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}^{-1}$). AZO thin films fabricated using ALD may be used as a promising cadidate of TCO materials for optoelectronic applications.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2008년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.9
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• pp.417-418
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• 2008

Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) are necessary as front electrode or anti-reflecting coating for increasing efficiency of LED and Photodiode. In this paper, aluminum-doped Zinc oxide films(AZO) were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering on glass(corning 1737) and Si substrate at temperature of $100^{\circ}C$ and then annealed at temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ for 1hr in Ar and vaccum. The AZO films were etched in diluted HCL (0.5 %) to examine the surface morphology properties. After annealing, Structural and electrical property were investigated. The c-axis orientation along (002) plane was enhanced and the electrical resistivity of the AZO film decreased from $1.1\times10^{-1}$ to $1.6\times10^{-2}{\Omega}cm$. We observed textured structure of AZO thin film etched for 2s.

• 반도체디스플레이기술학회지
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• 제9권4호
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• pp.25-29
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• 2010

We have investigated the effect of surface roughness of TCO substrate on the characteristics of OLED (organic light emitting diodes) devices. In order to control the surface roughness of AZO thin films, we have processed photo-lithography and reactive ion etching. The micro-size patterned mask was used, and the etching depth was controlled by changing etching time. The surface morphology of the AZO thin film was observed by FESEM and atomic force microscopy (AFM). And then, organic materials and cathode electrode were sequentially deposited on the AZO thin films. Device structure was AZO/${\alpha}$-NPD/DPVB/$Alq_3$/LiF/Al. The DPVB was used as a blue emitting material. The electrical characteristics such as current density vs. voltage and luminescence vs. voltage of OLED devices were measured by using spectrometer. The current vs. voltage and luminance vs. voltage characteristics were systematically degraded with increasing surface roughness. Furthermore, the retention test clearly presented that the reliability of OLED devices was directly influenced with the surface roughness, which could be interpreted in terms of the concentration of the electric field on the weak and thin organic layers caused by the poor step coverage.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제33권4호
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• pp.142-150
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• 2023

AZO/Cu/AZO thin films were deposited on glass by RF magnetron sputtering. The specimens showed the preferred orientation of (0002) AZO and (111) Cu. The Cu crystal sizes increased from about 3.7 nm to about 8.5 nm with increasing Cu thickness, and from about 6.3 nm to about 9.5 nm with increasing heat treatment temperatures. The sizes of AZO crystals were almost independent of the Cu thickness, and increased slightly with heat treatment temperature. The residual stress of AZO after heat treatment also increased compressively from -4.6 GPa to -5.6 GPa with increasing heat treatment temperature. The increase in crystal size resulted from grain growth, and the increase in stress resulted from the decrease in defects that accompanied grain growth, and the thermal stress during cooling from heat treatment temperature to room temperature. From the PL spectra, the decrease in defects during heat treatment resulted in the increased intensity. The electrical resistivities of the 4 nm Cu film were 5.9×10^-4 Ω·cm and about 1.0×10^-4 Ω·cm for thicker Cu films. The resistivity decreased as the temperature of heat treatment increased. As the Cu thickness increased, an increase in carrier concentration resulted, as the fraction of AZO/Cu/AZO metal film increased. And the increase in carrier concentration with increasing heat treatment temperature might result from the diffusion of Cu ions into AZO. Transmittance decreased with increasing Cu thicknesses, and reached a maximum near the 500 nm wavelength after being heat treated at 200 ℃.