Low-temperature plasma annealing of sputtered indium tin oxide for transparent and conductive thin-films on glass and polymer substrates

A review on the alternative of indium tin oxide coated glass substrate in flexible and bendable organic optoelectronic device

“…Because of excellent optical transmittance and low R s , ITO became the most commonly used TCE material 6 . Though it has many drawbacks like; (a) high processing temperature, (b) complex fabrication process, (c) higher material cost due to its low abundance in nature, (d) lower transparency in the NIR region, and (e) inherent crystallinity, which makes the material brittle and crack‐prone 7 and thus prohibits application in flexible optoelectronics 8,9 .…”

“…5 Because of excellent optical transmittance and low R s , ITO became the most commonly used TCE material. 6 Though it has many drawbacks like; (a) high processing temperature, (b) complex fabrication process, (c) higher material cost due to its low abundance in nature, (d) lower transparency in the NIR region, and (e) inherent crystallinity, which makes the material brittle and crack-prone 7 and thus prohibits application in flexible optoelectronics. 8,9 Therefore, the new flexible electrode material is needed for the bendable optoelectronics application, which will have equivalent or better transparency, R s , and withstand the compression and flexural stresses without any crack generation.…”

Influence of Substrate Orientation and Oxygen Partial Pressure on the Morphology, Structure, and Electrical Property of Epitaxial Indium Tin Oxide Films

“…Because of the high transparency in the visible region and excellent electrical conductivity, ITO films have been widely employed in various research fields such as biosensing technology, , electroanalysis, liquid crystal displays, , photovoltaic devices, , and light-emitting diodes. − In addition to this, ITO films with flat surfaces could be used as conductive substrates for specific characterization techniques such as ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy . Various techniques are available for ITO film preparation, including sol–gel process, spray pyrolysis, vacuum evaporation, , electron beam evaporation, magnetron sputtering, − pulsed laser deposition, − ion beam sputtering, chemical vapor deposition, − atomic layer deposition, and so forth. Generally, amorphous or nonepitaxial polycrystalline ITO films are usually obtained on the commonly used substrates for ITO deposition such as quartz, corning glass, polymer, and silicon substrates, while the orientation-controlled or epitaxial ITO films can be obtained on yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) or sapphire (Al 2 O 3 ) substrates under specific preparation conditions because of the low lattice mismatch between ITO films and the substrates. ,,,,− …”

Structural, Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Sputter Coated Copper Thin Films on Poly Ethylene Terephthalate 

“…Fabrication of stable exible conductive thin lms is a relatively new area of research which promises improvement in the electrical and mechanical properties of candidate polymer substrates for applicable electronic devices [1][2]. The advantages for fabrication of conductive thin lms on polymer substrates are combined the polymer exibility with metal conductivity properties [3]. There are numerous different coating techniques capable of fabricating thin conducting lms on polymer substrates.…”