• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.8
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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.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.404-407
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• 2017

We investigated the microstructure, electrical and optical characteristics of ZnO, AZO and ITO films using aerosol deposition process. As gas consumption increased, the electrical and optical characteristics of ZnO, AZO and ITO films were improved, and electrical and optical characteristics of ZnO, AZO and ITO films with a thickness of 400 nm were successfully fabricated on PET substrates at room temperature. The mechanical flexibility durability test shows that the ZnO films can withstand 5,000 cycles and AZO and ITO films occurs to crack in films with degradation of resistance and transmittance. Even though the AZO and ITO films shows slightly lower durability than the ZnO films, this is expected to improve performance of films through optimized processing condition and particle size control.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.123-123
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• 2015

Al doped ZnO(AZO) films as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) electrode were deposited on glass, polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) at room temperature by a conventional rf-magneton sputtering (CMS) and a facing target sputtering (FTS) using Al2O3 and ZnO targets. In order to investigation of AZO properties, the structural, surface morphology, electrical, and optical characteristics of AZO films were respectively analyzed. The resistivities of AZO films using FTS system were $6.50{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on glass, $7.0{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on PEN, and $7.4{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on PET substrates, while the values of AZO films using CMS system were $7.6{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on glass, $1.20{\times}10-3{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on PEN, and $1.58{\times}10-3{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ on PET substrates. The AZO-films deposited by FTS system showed uniform surface compared to those of the films by CMS system. We thought that the films deposited by FTS system had low stress due to bombardment of high energetic particles during CMS process, resulted in enhanced electrical conductivity and crystalline quality by highly c-axis preferred orientation and closely packed nano-crystalline of AZO films using FTS system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.82-83
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• 2008

AI doped ZnO (AZO) films, and intentionally Zn added AZO (ZAZO) films were prepared on Corning glass by rf magnetron sputtering, and the electrical, optical, and structural properties of the as-deposited films together with the air annealed films were investigated. The resistivity of the AZO films increased with increasing substrate temperature and having minimum resistivity at $150^{\circ}C$. At the high temperature, the ZAZO films showed improved electrical properties better than the AZO films due.to increase in both the carrier concentration and.the Hall mobility. Upon air annealing at $500^{\circ}C$, the resistivity of both AZO and ZAZO films increased substantially, but the relative amount of degradation was smaller for films deposited at $450^{\circ}C$ than the films deposited at $150^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.594-594
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• 2012

Al doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were deposited on textured glass substrate by magnetron sputtering method. Also, AZO films on textured glass were etched by hydrochloric acid (HCl). Average thickness of etched AZO films are 90 nm. We observed morphology of AZO film by AFM with various etchant concentration and etching time. Etched AZO films have low resistivity and high haze. The surface RMS roughness of AZO film was increased from 53.8 nm to 84.5 nm. The haze ratio was also enhanced in above 700 nm of wavelength due to light trapping effect was increased by rough AZO surface. The etched AZO films on textured glass are applicable to fabricate solar cell.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.07c
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• pp.1500-1501
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• 2006

Because AZO thin film has the potential applications, Preparing AZO thin films on the polymer substrate has been widely studied. In this study, we prepared AZO thin films on polyethersulfon (PES) at room temperature. The AZO thin films were prepared at $O_2$ gas flow rate of 0.05 and sputtering power of 100W with different film thickness by facing targets sputtering method. The electrical, optical and crystallographic properties of AZO thin films were measured by Hall effect measurement system, UV/VIS spectrometer, SEM and XRD. From the results, we obtained AZO thin films with a low resistivity, a transmittance of over 80% and c-axis preferred orientation.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2012

We were studied that AZO conductive thin film can substitute for FTO electrode in dye sensitized solar cell. Three types of AZO films were deposited on soda-lime glass(AZO/glass, AZO/AZO/glass, textured AZO/AZO/glass) using RF magnetron sputtering process and investigated their properties of electrical, optical, and photoelectric conversion rate. The textured AZO/AZO/glass has the lowest resistivity of $3.079{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}cm$ among other films. And the optical transmittance rate was better than both non textured AZO/AZO/glass and FTO/glass in the visible region. After manufacturing dye solar cells using the three types of AZO films, the textured AZO/AZO/glass showed the highest photoelectric conversion rate of 3.68% among AZO samples. But the transformation rate was slightly lower than FTO cells (4.52%). However, the conductive film of textured AZO/AZO/glass can be applicable to use an electrode in solar cells as cost-effective products.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2021

We have investigated the effect of the substrate temperature and hydrogen flow rate on the characteristics of AZO thin films for the TCO (transparent conducting oxide). For this purpose, AZO thin films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering at room temperature and 300℃ with various H2 flow rate. Experiments were carried out while varying the hydrogen gas flow rate from 0sccm to 5.0sccm in order to see how the hydrogen gas affects the AZO thin films. AZO thin films deposited at 300℃ showed amorphous structure, whereas IZO thin films deposited at room temperature showed crystalline structure having an (222) preferential orientation. The electrical resistivity of the AZO films deposited at 300℃ was 4.388×10-3Ωcm, the lowest value. As the hydrogen gas flow rate increased, the resistivity tended to decrease.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.36-40
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• 2016

The 2 wt.% Al-doped ZnO(AZO) thin films were fabricated on PET substrates with various RF power 20, 35, 50, 65, and 80W by using RF magnetron sputtering in order to investigate the structure, electrical and optical properties of AZO thin films in this study. The XRD measurements showed that AZO films exhibit c-axis orientation. At a RF power of 80W, the AZO films showed the highest (002) diffraction peak with a FWHM of 0.42. At a RF power of 65W, the lowest electrical resistivity was about $1.64{\times}[10]$ ^(-4) ${\Omega}-cm$ and the average transmittance of all films including substrates was over 80% in visible range. Good transparence and conducting properties were obtained due to RF power control. The obtained results indicate that it is acceptable for applications as transparent conductive electrodes.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2009

We have investigated the effect of the ambient gases on the characteristics of AZO thin films for the OLED (organic light emitting diodes) devices. These AZO thin films are deposited by rf-magnetron sputtering under different ambient gases (Ar, Ar+$O_2$, and Ar+$H_2$) at 300. 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 0.2sccm to 1sccm and from 0.5sccm to 5sccm, respectively. The AZO thin films were preferred oriented to (002) direction regardless of ambient gases. The electrical resistivity of AZO film increased with increasing flow rate of $O_2$ under Ar+$O_2$ while under Ar+$H_2$ atmosphere the electrical resistivity showed minimum value near 1sccm of $H_2$. All the films showed the average transmittance over 80% in the visible range. The OLED device was fabricated with different AZO substrates made by configuration of AZO/$\acute{a}$-NPD/DPVB/$Alq_3$/LiF/Al to elucidate the performance of AZO substrate.