• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.10 s.269
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• pp.742-748
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• 2004

Isopropanol of low boiling point was used as a solvent to prepare Al-doped ZnO(AZO) thin films. A homogeneous and stable sol was made from Zn acetate a solute whose mole concentration was 0.7mol/$\iota$ and Al chloride as a dopant. Al-doped ZnO thin films were prepared by sol-gel method as a function of post-heating temperature from 500 to $700^{\circ}C$ and the optical and electrical properties were investigated. The c-axis orientation along (002) plane was enhanced with the increasing of post-heating temperature and the surface morphology of the films showed a homogeneous and nano-sized microstructure. The optical transmittance of the films post-heated below $650^{\circ}C$ was over $86\%$, but decreased at $700^{\circ}C$. The electrical resistivity of the thin films decreased from 73 to 22 $\Omega$-cm as the post-heating temperature increased up to $650^{\circ}C$, but increased greatly to 580 $\Omega$-cm at $700^{\circ}C$. XPS analysis indicated that the deterioration of electrical and optical properties was attributed to the precipitation of $Al_2O_3$ phase on the surface of AZO thin film. This result suggests that the optimum post-heating temperature to improve electrical and optical properties is $600^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.291-294
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• 2015

Recently, ZnO based oxide TFTs used in the flexible and transparent display devices are widely studied. To apply to OLED display switching devices, electrical performance and stability are important issues. In this study, to improve these electrical properties, we fabricated TFTs having Al doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) layer inserted between the gate insulator and ZnO layer. The AZO and ZnO layers are deposited by Atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. I-V transfer characteristics and stability of the suggested devices are investigated under the positive gate bias condition while the channel defects are also analyzed by the photoluminescence spectrum. The TFTs with AZO layer show lower threshold voltage ($V_{th}$) and superior sub-threshold slop. In the case of $V_{th}$ shift after positive gate bias stress, the stability is also better than that of ZnO channel TFTs. This improvement is thought to be caused by the reduced defect density in AZO/ZnO stack devices, which can be confirmed by the photoluminescence spectrum analysis results where the defect related deep level emission of AZO is lower than that of ZnO layer.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.480-492
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• 1996

AZO (Aluminum doped Zinc Oxide) transparent conducting thin films were fabricated by reactive DC mangnetron sputtering method using zinc target containing 2 wt% of Al. Transition range with optimum transmittance and conductivity was obtained by contrlling partial pressure of reactive oxygen gas. Sputtering condition for this transition range could be kept stable by regulating the target voltage. According to XRD analysis, there was only one peak for (002) plane in AZO films and the films deposited in transition range.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.257-261
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• 2013

We have studied structural, optical, and electrical properties of the Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films using RF magnetron sputtering with various working pressure. To find optimal properties of AZO for transparent conducting oxides, the working pressure in sputtering process was varied as 0.07 Torr, 0.02 Torr, and 0.007 Torr, respectively. As working pressure increased, the crystallinity of AZO thin film was improved, the surface roughness of AZO thin film decreased. The transmittance of the film was over 80% in the visible light range regardless of the changes in working pressure. In case of 0.007 Torr, best electrical properties was shown due to the reduction of oxygen absorption by decreasing surface roughness.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.61.2-61.2
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• 2011

본 연구에서는 박막 태양전지용 투명전극으로 사용하기 위해서 Gun-type RF 마그네트론 스퍼트링을 이용하였다. 챔퍼안의 타겟은 AZO타겟(Zn: 98[wt.%], Al:2[wt.%]을 장착하였고 공정압력은 고진공을 유지하였다. 온도는 $300^{\circ}C$로 고정하였고 전력은 70W로 고정하였다. $Ar^+$ 가스유량비를 20sccm~100sccm으로 변화를 주어 기판 위에 AZO를 증착하여 AZO의 구조적 및 광학적 특성의 의존성을 알아보았다. 모든 가스변화에서 400에서 700 nm까지의 가시광 영역에서의 AZO 박막의 평균 투과도는 약 85% 이상의 우수한 투과율을 보인다. AZO 박막 내의 결정 구조는 (002)면으로 우선 배향을 하는 wurtzite 구조를 가지며, $Ar^+$변화에 의해 두께가 증가하면서 결정립의 주상 (columnar) 성장이 향상되고 결정립의 크기도 증가한다. 이러한 경향성은 $Ar^+$변화에 의해 결정성이 향상된다는 것을 의미한다. 이와 같은 구조 및 광학 특성을 가지는 유리 기판 위에 증착된 AZO는 박막 태양전지용 투명 전극으로 응용이 가능할 것이다.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.279-283
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• 2016

In this study, we intended to achieve both antibacterial properties and electromagnetic shielding using the Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films. FTS (Facial Target Sputtering) magnetron sputtering was used for the AZO thin films instead of the conventional RF sputtering because the FTS sputtering could avoid the damage for the plasma as well as fabrication of thin films with a high quality. The 300-nm thick AZO thin films grown on glass substrate showed a resistivity of about $7{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}-cm$ and a transmittance of about 90% at a wavelength of 550 nm. AZO thin films were investigated for the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness measured by 2-port network method at 1.5 ~ 3 GHz. The AZO (300 nm)/glass films showed an EMI shielding effectiveness of approximately 27 dB. An antibacterial effect was measured by the film attachment method (JIS Z 2801). The percent reductions of bacteria by AZO films were 99.99668% and 99.99999% against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.285-285
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• 2014

새로운 플라즈마 소스를 이용하여 Al doped ZnO (AZO) 박막을 증착하였다. 이 실험에서 박막의 증착두께를 200nm로 고정하였다. 인가전력, 공정압력 그리고 기판거리를 변수로 하였을 경우 AZO 박막의 방향성과 결정성을 XRD로 측정하고 분석하였고 박막의 전기적 특성을 Hall measurment로 측정하였다. 그 결과 인가파워가 2W/cm2, 공정압력이 2mTorr이고 기판거리가 2cm 일 때 박막의 전기적 특성이 가장 좋게 나타났다.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1072-1076
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• 2007

We prepared the Al doped ZnO (AZO) thin film on polyethersulfon (PES) without any substrate heating by Facing Targets Sputtering (FTS) system. FTS system has two different facing targets. One is ZnO doped the content of Al 2 wt% and the other is Zn in order to decrease resistivity. The electrical, structural and optical properties of AZO thin films were investigated. To evaluate the as-deposited thin film properties, we employed four-point probe (CMT-R100nw, Changmin), Surface profiler (Alpha-step, Tencor), UV/VIS spectrometer (HP), X-ray diffractometer (XRD, Rigaku) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM, Hitachi S-4700). As a result, We obtained that AZO thin film deposited on PES substrate at a DC Power of 150 W, working pressure of 1 mTorr and $O_2$ gas flow ratio of 0.2 exhibited the resistivity of $4.2{\times}10^{-4}\;[{\Omega}cm]$ and the optical transmittance of about 85 % in the visible range.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.43-46
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• 2017

Aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) with respect to the Al doping concentrations. In order to explain the chemical stability and electrical properties of the AZO thin films after hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) solution immersion treatment at room temperature, we investigated correlations between the electrical resistivity and the electronic structure, such as chemical bonding state, conduction band, band edge state below conduction band, and band alignment. Al-doped at ~ 10 at % showed not only a dramatic improvement of the electrical resistivity but also excellent chemical stability, both of which are strongly associated with changes of chemical bonding states and band edge states below the conduction band.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.145-148
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• 2016

This paper, Al-doped ZnO(AZO) thin films for application as transparent conducting oxide films were deposited on the Corning glass substrate by using RF magnetron sputtering system. The effects of various Argon gas flow rates on optical and electrical characteristics of AZO films were investigate sputtering method. The Carrier Concentration is enhanced as Ar gas rate increases, and also the oxygen vacancy concentration. The figure of merit obtained in this study means that AZO films which deposited Ar gas rate of 75 sccm have the highest Carrier concentration and Hall mobility, which have the highest photoelectrical performance that it could be used as transparent electrodes.