Implementation of E-Beam Evaporation to the Deposition of Transparent Conductive Oxide Thin Films on Plastic Substrates

Due to excellent electrical conductivity, good visible light transparacy, and high infrared reflectivity, transparent conducting oxide (TCO) thin films are the most important transparent conducting electrode materials in optoelectronic devices. To meet the future demands for small, slim, flexible, and portable optoelectronic devices, deposition of TCO thin films on soft plastic substrates becomes main issue for the technology development. Currently, the primary TCO thin film materials used in the industry is sputtered tin-doped indium oxides (ITO). However, due to certain limitations and problems encountered in the production processes and the applications of ITO thin films, there are urgent needs to find new materials and new deposition process to replace sputtered ITO thin films. Recently, aluminum-doped zinc oxides (AZO) and indium zinc oxide (IZO) thin films have been actively studied due to their great potentials as alternative materials to replace ITO. Due to the advantages of high produce rate, consistant high film quality, low deposition temperature, and large area coating capability, sputtering is the main deposition method used in the industry to produce TCO thin films. However, due to the problems of high deposition temperature for plastic substrates and non-uniform etching profile, how to resovle the problems encountered in the sputtering deposition and processing of TCO thin films to meet the future trend of soft plastic panels has become an important issue for both the industry and the academia. The objective of this one year research project is to deposit different transparent conductive oxide thin films on plastic substrates by e-beam evaporation utilizing different TCO ceramic targets. In addition, the effects of the processing conditions on the characteristics of TCO thin films will also be investigated.

Project ID:PB9811-0223
External Project ID:NSC98-2622-E182-068-CC3