High-throughput transparent and flexible electronics are essential technologies for next-generation displays, semiconductors, and wearable bio-medical applications. However, to manufacture a high-quality transparent and flexible electrode, conventional annealing processes generally require 5 min or more at a high temperature condition of 300 °C or higher. This high thermal budget condition is not only difficult to apply to general polymer-based flexible substrates, but also results in low-throughput. Here, we report a high-quality transparent electrode produced with an extremely low thermal budget using Xe-flash lamp rapid photonic curing. Photonic curing is an extremely short time (~ μs) process, making it possible to induce an annealing effect of over 800 °C. The photonic curing effect was optimized by selecting the appropriate power density, the irradiation energy of the Xe-flash lamp, and Ag layer thickness. Rapid photonic curing produced an ITO–Ag–ITO electrode with a low sheet resistance of 6.5 ohm/sq, with a high luminous transmittance of 92.34%. The low thermal budget characteristics of the rapid photonic curing technology make it suitable for high-quality transparent electronics and high-throughput processes such as roll-to-roll.
Considering the relationship between thin film thickness of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) materials and the reversed pulse time in pulsed-direct current (DC) sputtering, aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films were deposited on glass substrates at different reversed pulse times by
changing oxygen/argon (O2/Ar) gas ratios for window layers of large area CuIn1-xGaxSe2 (CIGS) solar cells. As a result of the reduced sputtering time, the thickness of AZO film was decreased when the reversed pulsed time was increased.
The higher resistance and resistivity of the AZO film was obtained at a higher reversed pulse time. From the structural investigations of AZO such as transmittance and X-ray diffraction (XRD), it was possible to observe the relationship between the crystallinity of AZO and transmittance. Even
at the short reversed pulse time of 0.5 µs, it can be concluded that the accumulated charges on the AZO target are completely cleared and the AZO layers show the highest figure of merit (FOM) with low sheet resistance and high transmittance.
For the realization of the economical and reliable fabrication process of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) layers, MoS2 thin films were directly formed a on soda-lime glass substrate by RF sputtering and subsequent rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at a temperature range
of 400–550 °C. Using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy, it was possible to investigate more stable surface morphologies of MoS2 layers at lower RF sputtering powers irrespective of the RTA temperature. Even at an RTA temperature of less than 550
°C, the Raman exhibited more distinct E12g and A1g peaks for the MoS2 layers sputtered at lower RF powers. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results revealed that more distinct peaks were observed at a higher RTA temperature,
and the peak positions were moved to higher energies at a lower RF sputtering power. Based on the Hall measurements, higher carrier densities were obtained for the MoS2 layers sputtered at lower RF powers.
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