• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.269-276
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• 2009

Antimony doped tin oxide ($SnO_2:Sb$) films, which are used as the front contact and back reflector of thin film solar cells, have been deposited by d,c, magnetron sputtering. The dependence of electrical and optical properties of the films on the preparation conditions, such as $O_2$ gas ratio, substrate temperature, annealing temperature was investigated. The sputter gas composition was found to affect the properties of the films. With incorporating $O_2$ gas, the electrical and optical properties of films significantly were improved. The minimum resistivity and optical transmittance over 80 % in visible region were obtained at the oxygen concentration of 30 %, When the substrate temperature was higher, the resistivity of $SnO_2:Sb$ films was decreased, while the absorption edge shifted to shorter wavelength, indicating higher optical band gap. Heat treatment over $600^{\circ}C$ resulted in poorer electrical and optical properties due to SnO phase (102) plane.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.241-246
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• 2003

The transparent conducting thin film of ATO (antimony-doped tin oxide) was successfully fabricated on$SiO_2$/glass substrate by a sol-gel dip coating method. The crystalline phase of the ATO thin film was identified as SnO$_2$ major phase and the film thickness was about 100 nm/layer at the withdrawal speed of 50 mm/minute. Optical transmittance and electrical resistivity of the 400 nm-thick ATO thin film which was annealed under nitrogen atmosphere were 84% and $5.0\times 10^{-3}\Omega \textrm{cm}$, respectively. It was found that the $SiO_2$ layer inhibited Na ion diffusion and the formation of impurities like $Na_2SnO_3$ or SnO while increasing Sb ion concentration and higher ratio of $Sb^{5+}/Sb^{3+}$in the film. Annealing at nitrogen atmosphere leads to the reduction of $Sn^{4+}$ as well as $Sb^{5+}$ resulting in decrease of the electrical resistivity of the film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.361-362
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• 2005

Antimony doped tin oxide(ATO) nano powders have been synthesized by homogeneous precipitation method using $SnCl_4\cdot5H_2O$ for precursor, $SbCl_3$ as doped material and urea. The hydrolysis of urea and conductive mechanism and Heat treatment was performed at the temperature from $500^{\circ}C$ to $700^{\circ}C$ in air. The ATO nano powders are characterized by means of Thermogravimetry differential thermal analyzer (TG-DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller adsorption (BET), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) ATO nano powders with an average size of nm and the highest surface area 129 $m^2g^{-1}$ are obtained.

• 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.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.83-88
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• 1996

Long term stability, sensitization in air, and gas sensing behaviors of tin oxide films were investigated with doping of antimony and palladium. The tin oxide films were prepared on a Corning glass by reactive rf sputtering method and tested for detection of hydrogen gas. Sb-doping improved a long-term stability in the base resistance of $SnO_2$ film sensor. A small amount of Pd doping caused the optimum sensor operating temperature to reduce and also enhanced the gas sensitivity, compared with the undoped $SnO_2$ film. Gas sensitivity depended largely on the film thickness. The important sensitization reactions for sensor operating were $(O_{2ads})+e^-\;{\rightarrow}\;2(O_{ads})^-$ on the surface of $SnO_2$ film at elevated temperature in air and a followed reaction of hydrogen atoms with $(O_{ads})^-$ ions.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.386-393
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• 2002

Fabricatio of the potassium-titanate fiber with K2O${\cdot}nTiO_2$ composition and coating of electrically conductive Sb-doped $SnO_2$ (ATO: Antimony Tin Oxide) layer on the fiber on the fiber were the fiber were the aims of this work. The fiber fabricated by slow-cooling technique showed the mean length of $15{\mu}m$ and mean diameter of $0.5{\mu}m$. Three different coating methods i.e, sol-gel, co-precipitation and urea technique, were attempted to coat the conductive ATO layer on the potassium-titanate fiber. The influences of coating method, concentrations of ATO(5∼70wt%) and Sb (0∼20wt%), temperature in the range of $450\;to\;800^{\circ}C$, number of washing (3∼4 times) on the resistivity of the ATO coated fiber were examined in details. The fiber coated ATO by coprecipitation exhibited lower resistivity of 103${\Omega}{\cdot}$cm at the 30 wt% of ATO, and showed nearly constant low value of $60{\Omega}{\cdot}cm\;to\;90{\Omega}{\cdot}$cm at the higher concentration of ATO.

• Solar Energy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.137-144
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• 1998

Tin oxide films deposited by spray pyrolysis have defects and preferred orientations according to the temperature of substrate. The growth of crystalline deposits began at the substrate temperature of $300^{\circ}C$. With increasing substrate temperature the plane (200) groved preferentially and above $400^{\circ}C$, planes of higher indices. Grain size increased with increasing substrate temperature up to $400^{\circ}C$. Undoped film is composed of Sn and O, and contains oxygen vacancies. Film doped with antimony has defects such as oxygen vacancies, antimony substituted on Sn and chlorine on oxygen.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.299-305
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• 2010

Purposes: The purposes of this study were to investigate the optical, structural and electrical properties of the antimony doped tin oxide(ATO) thin films according to certain variable deposition conditions, such as RF input power and T-S (target-substrate) distance change, using transparent conducting oxide (TCO). Methods: ATO thin films of Sb concentration ratio with $SnO_2:Sb_2O_5$ = 95:5 wt% were deposited at room temperature by RF magnetron sputtering method. Results: ATO thin films were most sensitive to the RF input power: light transmittance was 78% at RF input power of 30W, and 0.56 nm for the surface roughness and 1007 $\Omega{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ for the sheet resistance as well. Conclusions: It was found that ATO thin films were showed the large change in its characteristics of structural, optical and electrical properties which were affected by T-S distance and RF input power.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.361-364
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• 2000

Antimony doped tin oxide (ATO) thin films were deposited at room temperature by reactive ion-beam sputter deposition (IBSD) technique in oxidizing atmosphere utilizing Sb and Sn metal targets. Effect of Sb doping concentration, film thickness and heat treatment on electrical and optical properties was investigated. The thickness of as-deposited films was controlled approximately to 1500 $\AA$ or 2000$\AA$, and Sb concentration to 10.8 and 14.9 wt%, as determined by SEM and XPS analyses. Heat treatment was performed at the temperature from 40$0^{\circ}C$ to 80$0^{\circ}C$ in flowing $O_2$or forming gas. The resulting ATO films showed widely changing electrical resistivity and optical transmittance values in the visible spectrum depending on the composition, thickness and firing condition.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.371-375
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• 2022

Antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) thin films, one type of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films, were prepared on a SiO₂-coated glass substrate with different substrate temperatures by a radio-frequency magnetron sputtering system. Structural, optical, and electrical characteristics of the deposited ATO films were analyzed using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, alpha-step, ultraviolet-visible spectrometer, and Hall effect measurement. The substrate temperature during deposition did not affect the basic crystal structure of the films but changed the grain size and film thickness. The optical transmittance of the ATO films deposited at different substrate temperatures was over 70%. The lowest sheet resistance and resistivity were 8.43 × 10² Ω/sq, and 0.3991 × 10^-2 Ω·cm, respectively, and the highest carrier concentration and mobility were 2.36 × 10²¹ cm^-3 and 6.627 × 10^-2 cm²V^-1s^-1, respectively, at a substrate temperature of 400 ℃.