Abstract
A rectangular closed and hollow three-dimensionally confined large area magnetron source (3-DCLAMS) and a conventional moderate area facing target magnetron source (FTMS) have been used to study the plasma characteristics using different diagnostics at different working pressures. Flexible indium tin oxide (ITO) films deposited at similar operating conditions using these sources were characterized by numerous standard analyses to study their film properties. The 3-DCLAMS with high discharge current at a low-discharge voltage is capable of generating high plasma density, which assists a high ion flux and energy density on the substrate that is necessary for the high growth rate deposition of highly conductive crystalline ITO films with smooth surface morphology. Utilizing suitable plasma characteristics, highly conductive and transparent ITO films of 30 nm with the minimum resistivity ρ ∼ 4.1 × 10−4 Ω cm and ∼9.3 × 10−4 Ω cm and average transmittance T ∼ 84% and 82%, respectively, were deposited in the 3-DCLAMS and the FTMS system. The presented result shows that the 3-DCLAMS system could be useful for making high-quality, flexible ITO films at a very high deposition rate of ∼250 nm/min.
Highlights
High growth rate deposition at a low deposition temperature (≤100 ○C) is a crucial requirement, among others, in coating technology due to the emerging demand for flexible thin film materials in microelectronics.1,2 Mainly, indium tin oxide (ITO) films are being investigated as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material since they have simultaneously shown high transparency and conductivity.3–6 The conditions of a high rate and low-temperature process considerably reduce the deposition time and evade the limitation of the choice of substrates to be utilized for coatings
The results show that n0 in the 3-DCLAMS system is appreciably higher compared to facing target magnetron source (FTMS) due to the former’s three-dimensionally confined magnetic field
In our earlier study,22 we have shown that the overall variation of the magnetic field in the central plane of the 3-DCLAMS system lies between 30 G and 300 G
Summary
High growth rate deposition at a low deposition temperature (≤100 ○C) is a crucial requirement, among others, in coating technology due to the emerging demand for flexible thin film materials in microelectronics. Mainly, indium tin oxide (ITO) films are being investigated as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material since they have simultaneously shown high transparency and conductivity. The conditions of a high rate and low-temperature process considerably reduce the deposition time and evade the limitation of the choice of substrates to be utilized for coatings. Plasma-based deposition methods like magnetron sputtering (MS) have shown promising prospects toward a high growth rate and low-temperature deposition process with excellent target coverage up to the broader area, high adhesion of films on the substrate, and good uniformity over a large area.. There are reports of advanced plasma processes using the MS technique with electron beam irradiation, ion beam deposition, and high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS).21 Among these techniques, DC MS is more considerable for mass scale and cost-effective applications owing to its potential for reproducibility and larger area coverage.. DC MS is more considerable for mass scale and cost-effective applications owing to its potential for reproducibility and larger area coverage.7 Another aspect of plasma-based deposition using MS is to control the film properties by tuning the plasma parameters and energy in-flux (EF) in the deposition environment..
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