• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.174-179
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• 2012

In this study, we demonstrated a simple and eco-friendly method, including mechanical polishing and attrition milling processes, to recycle sputtered indium tin oxide targets to indium tin oxide nanopowders and targets for sputtered transparent conductive films. The utilized indium tin oxide target was first pulverized to a powder of sub- to a few- micrometer size by polishing using a diamond particle coated polishing wheel. The calcination of the crushed indium tin oxide powder was carried out at $1000^{\circ}C$ for 1 h, based on the thermal behavior of the indium tin oxide powder; then, the powders were downsized to nanometer size by attrition milling. The average particle size of the indium tin oxide nanopowder was decreased by increasing attrition milling time and was approximately 30 nm after attrition milling for 15 h. The morphology, chemical composition, and microstructure of the recycled indium tin oxide nanopowder were investigated by FE-SEM, EDX, and TEM. A fully dense indium tin oxide sintered specimen with 97.4% of relative density was fabricated using the recycled indium tin oxide nanopowders under atmospheric pressure at $1500^{\circ}C$ for 4 h. The microstructure, phase, and purity of the indium tin oxide target were examined by FE-SEM, XRD, and ICP-MS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.307.1-307.1
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• 2016

Amorphous zinc tin oxide (ZTO) thin films are being widely studied for a variety electronic applications such as the transparent conducting oxide (TCO) in the field of photoelectric elements and thin film transistors (TFTs). Thin film transistors (TFTs) with transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors (TAOS) represent a major advance in the field of thin film electronics. Examples of TAOS materials include zinc tin oxide (ZTO), indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO), indium zinc oxide, and indium zinc tin oxide. Among them, ZTO has good optical and electrical properties (high transmittance and larger than 3eV band gap energy). Furthermore ZTO does not contain indium or gallium and is relatively inexpensive and non-toxic. In this study, ZTO thin films were formed by UHV RF magnetron co-sputter deposition on silicon substrates and sapphires. The films were deposited from ZnO and SnO2 target in an RF argon and oxygen plasma. The deposition condition of ZTO thin films were controlled by RF power and post anneal temperature using rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The deposited and annealed films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscope (AFM), ultraviolet and visible light (UV-VIS) spectrophotometer.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.684-687
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• 2011

In this study, we investigate the photovoltaic performance of transparent conductive indium tin oxide (ITO), titanium-doped indium oxide (ITiO), and fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) films. ITO and ITiO films are prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on soda-lime glass substrate at $300^{\circ}C$, and the FTO film used is a commercial product. We measure the X-ray diffraction patterns, AFM micrographs, transmittance, sheet resistances after heat treatment, and transparent conductive characteristics of each film. The value of electrical resistivity and optical transmittance of the ITiO films was $4.15{\times}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}-cm$. The near-infrared ray transmittance of ITiO is the highest for wavelengths over 1,000 nm, which can increase dye sensitization compared to ITO and FTO. The photoconversion efficiency (${\eta}$) of the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) sample using ITiO was 5.64%, whereas it was 2.73% and 6.47% for DSC samples with ITO and FTO, respectively, both at 100 mW/$cm^2$ light intensity.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2011.07a
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• pp.2013-2014
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• 2011

Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films have been deposited onto bare glass substrates by sol-gel process. The solution was prepared by mixing indium precursor and tin precursor dissolved in 2-methoxyethanol at $75^{\circ}C$ for 12 hours. Indium tin oxide films were prepared by slowly heat up to $200^{\circ}C$ for 10 minutes and annealed at $350^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour. In this paper, we researched simple and inexpensive sol-gel process. To find the optimal ratio of In/Sn to reduce electric resistance in ITO made by sol-gel process, we assessed electric properties varying the ratio of In and Sn precursor.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.6 s.301
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• pp.313-318
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• 2007

ITO (Indium-tin oxide) thin films have been prepared by a sol-gel spinning coating method and fired and annealed in the temperature range of $450-600^{\circ}C$. The XRD patterns of the films indicated the main peak of (222) plane and showed higher crystallinity with increasing an annealing temperature. The surface of the ITO thin films were treated with 0.1 N HCl 20% solution at room temperature. The effects of surface treatment on electrical properties and surface morphologies of the ITO films were investigated with the results of sheet resistance and FE-SEM, AFM images. The samples, subsequently treated with acidic solution for 40 sec showed the sheet resistance of $0.982\;k{\Omega}/square$. The surface treatment using acidic solution diminished the RMS (root mean square) value and the residual carbon content of the ITO films. It seemed that the acid-cleaning of the ITO thin films lead to the decrease of surface roughness and sheet resistance.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.107-109
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• 2000

The crystallization process and the electrical properties of amorphous tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) films have been studied in contrast with those of undoped indium oxide (IO) films. Amorphous ITO and IO films were prepared by magnetron sputtering succeeded by annealing in the air at various temperatures. ITO films showed higher crystallization temperature compared with that of IO films, suggesting an excess free energy caused by the repulsion between the active donors ($Sn^{4+}$). The analysis of the electrical properties alternated with the phased annealing of films provided essential information for understanding the conduction mechanisms of ITO. It was also revealed that the amorphous IO/ITO films showed oxidation around $100^{\circ}C$ in contrast with crystalline IO/ITO films with the oxidation temperature above $200^{\circ}C$.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.08a
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• pp.190-192
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• 2007

A neutral beam system has been developed to produce hyperthermal neutral beams composed of indium, tin, and oxygen atoms. Using these hyper thermal neutral beams with energies in the range of tens of eV, high quality indium-tin oxide (ITO) thin films have been obtained on glass substrates at room temperature. The optical transmittance of the films is higher than 85% at a wavelength of 550 nm and the electrical resistivity is lower than $1{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}cm$.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.660-665
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• 1996

Thin films of indium oxide and indium tin oxide have been prepared by d.c. magnetron sputtering onto the fused silica substrates kept at 90, 200 and $300^{\circ}C$. In order to elucidate the optical absorption process in low energy region below 3 eV, we have analyzed the absorption coefficients obtained from reflectance and transmittance measurements for these films based on the Lucovsky model. It has been found for the first time that a defect center in the band gap is located at 0.8~1.4 eV below the Fermi level in all films and arises from oxygen vacancies in their films. The optical absorption in low energy region is explained to be dominated by the transition of electrons trapped at the positively charged (+2e) oxygen vacancies with s-like nature to the conduction band formed from the 5s-orbit in indium atoms.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 1996

Indium-tin oxide (ITO) films were deposited on the glass substrate by the reactive -ionized cluster beam deposition(ICBD) method. In the oxygen atmosphere, indium cluster formed through the nozzle is ionized by the electron bombardment and is accelerated to be deposited on the substrate. And tin is simultaneoulsy evaporated from the boron-nitride crucible. The chracteristics of films were examined by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS), glancing angle X-ray diffractrion(GXRD) and the electrical properties. were measured by 4-point-probe and Hall effect measurement system . From the XPS spectrum , it was found that indium and tin atoms combined with the oxygen to form oxide$(In_2O_3, SnO_2)$. In the case of films with high tin-concentration, the GXRD spectra show that the main $In_2O_3$ peak of (222) plane, but also sub peaks((440) peak etc.) and $SnO_2$ peaks were detected. From that results, itis concluded that the heavily dopped tin component (more than 14 at. %) disturbs to form $In_2O_3$(222) phase. Four-point-probe and Hall effect measurement show that, in the most desirable case, the transmittance of the films is more then 90% in visible range and its resistivity is $$\rho$=3.55 \times10^{-4}\Omega$cm and its mobility is $\mu$=42.8 $\textrm{cm}^2$/Vsec.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.224-229
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• 2010

Transparent conductive oxide films have been widely used in the field of flat panel display (FPD). Transparent conductive Indium Zinc Oxide (IZO) thin films with excellent chemical stability have attracted much attention as an alternative material for Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) films. In this study, using $In_2O_3$ and ZnO powder mixture with a ratio of 90 : 10 wt% as a target, IZO films are prepared on polynorbornene (PNB) substrates by electron beam evaporation. The effect of thickness and $O_2$ introduction flow rate on the optical, electrical, structural properties and surface composition of deposited IZO films were investigated by UV/Visible spectrophotometer, 4-point probe method, SEM, XRD and XPS.