Deposition of tin-doped indium oxide films by a modified reactive magnetron sputtering process

Abstract

It has been difficult to deposit high quality indium tin oxide (ITO) films onto large area polymeric substrates that cannot be heated (over 40–50 °C) during deposition or subjected to post-deposition annealing. We have developed a modified process based on reactive magnetron sputtering of a metallic indium tin alloy target to deposit good quality ITO films with deposition rates as high as 4Å s -1 at a target-substrate distance of 10 in. Films with sheet resistance less than 10 Ω/□ and integrated visible transmission greater than 85% have been deposited using this process onto 12 in 12 × 12 in polymeric substrates at ambient temperature. A detailed description of the above process with an emphasis on obtaining control over the properties and reproducibility of good quality ITO films using this technique is presented in this paper.