| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Transparent Conductors and Printable Electronics Focus Topic | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session TC+EM+TF-WeM |
| Session: | Oxide and Flexible Electronics |
| Presenter: | P. Joshi, Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
| Authors: | P. Joshi, Oak Ridge National Laboratory M. Shao, Oak Ridge National Laboratory K. Xiao, Oak Ridge National Laboratory S. Killough, Oak Ridge National Laboratory P. Kuruganti, Oak Ridge National Laboratory C. Duty, Oak Ridge National Laboratory |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
In the last few years, there has been growing interest in the development of flexible electronics to meet the manufacturing technology demands of higher functionality, reduced material usages and device dimensions, and lower consumption of products. Metal oxide thin films are attractive for multifunctional flexible system development due to their very low cost, tunable properties, and simple electronic interface. Low temperature processing of metal oxides thin films is critical to exploit their unique structural, optical, and electrical properties for a wide range of active and passive device applications, such as flat panel displays, organic electronics, RFIDs, antennas, inductors, capacitors, sensors, batteries and energy harvesting devices. In the present paper; we report on the pulse thermal processing (PTP) processing of metal oxide thin films integrated on flexible substrates. The PTP technique is being explored for the development of cost-effective, high yield, and high quality integrated thin films and devices on low temperature substrates. This technology offers the ability to expose large areas of material to an extremely high energy flux (up to 20 kW/cm2) during a very short period of time (as low as 30 microseconds) meeting the demands of roll-to-roll manufacturing technology. The details of the PTP processing of metal oxide thin films with specific examples related to single and multilayer thin film structures incorporating ZnO and ITO thin films are presented in this paper. The influence of the low processing temperature (<100°C) on the thin film growth and properties has been investigated in terms of process-structure-property correlation study. The impact of the substrate on the thin film growth and properties has also been analyzed. The low thermal budget PTP processing significantly impacts the microstructural, optical, and electrical characteristics on low temperature flexible substrates. The combination of low temperature deposition techniques and low thermal budget PTP processing show promise for multifunctional thin film material and device integration for flexible electronics.