Indium-free, highly transparent, flexible Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O mesh electrodes for flexible touch screen panels

Abstract

We report on an indium-free and cost-effective Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O multilayer mesh electrode grown by room temperature roll-to-roll sputtering as a viable alternative to ITO electrodes for the cost-effective production of large-area flexible touch screen panels (TSPs). By using a low resistivity metallic Cu interlayer and a patterned mesh structure, we obtained Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O multilayer mesh electrodes with a low sheet resistance of 15.1 Ohm/square and high optical transmittance of 89% as well as good mechanical flexibility. Outer/inner bending test results showed that the Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O mesh electrode had a mechanical flexibility superior to that of conventional ITO films. Using the diamond-patterned Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O multilayer mesh electrodes, we successfully demonstrated TSPS of the flexible film-film type and rigid glass-film-film type TSPs. The TSPs with Cu2O/Cu/Cu2O mesh electrode were used to perform zoom in/out functions and multi-touch writing, indicating that these electrodes are promising cost-efficient transparent electrodes to substitute for conventional ITO electrodes in large-area flexible TSPs.

An antireflection transparent conductor with ultralow optical loss (<2 %) and electrical resistance (<6 Ω sq−1)

“…These include, for example, displays, light-emitting diodes and photovoltaic cells, where TCs are used to either apply or collect electrical signals without reducing optical transmission ( T )12345. An intensive effort has been devoted to search for TC materials that can replace indium tin oxide (ITO), a wide band gap semiconductor, which is used in most of, if not all, the devices today.…”

Sputter deposition of Sn-doped ZnO/Ag/Sn-doped ZnO transparent contact layer for GaN LED applications

“…However, an alternative TCL with optical and electrical performances similar to or better than those of ITO materials in a largearea GaN LED is needed because indium is a scarce metal and its price has increased to by more than 10 times since the 1960s [13,14]. Recently, metal oxide-metal-metal oxide multilayer electrodes have emerged as promising TCLs for organic LEDs, organic solar cells, and flexible touch panels [15][16][17][18] due to the low resistivity and the high optical transmittance. The insertion of metal layers between thin oxide films ensures the long-term electrical stabilities of the metal layers by preventing metal oxidization [17].…”

Effect of AlOx protection layer on AgNWs for flexible transparent heater

“…For a high-performance transparent heater, a high quality transparent conductive material is essential. In order to meet the requirement of high conductivity with transparency and flexibility, carbon-based materials (graphene, carbon nanotubes (CNTs)) [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] , conducting polymers [12][13][14][15] , metal nanoparticles 16 , and metal mesh [17][18][19] have been widely used for a flexible substrate. Although the flexibility of these transparent conductors is greatly improved, their performance highly depends on the sample preparation and often does not meet the requirement for many applications regarding conductivity and stability [20][21][22] .…”