AVS 45th International Symposium
    Thin Films Division Monday Sessions
       Session TF-MoM

Paper TF-MoM8
Improvement of Microstructure of Indium-Tin-Oxide Films by Thin Film and Surface Technologies

Monday, November 2, 1998, 10:40 am, Room 310

Session: Transparent Conductive Oxides
Presenter: Y. Taga, TOYOTA Central Research & Development Labs., Inc., Japan
Authors: Y. Taga, TOYOTA Central Research & Development Labs., Inc., Japan
T. Satoh, TOYOTA Central Research & Development Labs., Inc., Japan
M. Ishii, TOYOTA Central Research & Development Labs., Inc., Japan
T. Ohwaki, TOYOTA Central Research & Development Labs., Inc., Japan
Correspondent: Click to Email
A rapid progress has been made in the practical device applications of flat panel displays (FPD) such as liquid crystal display, electroluminescence display, etc. In accordance with this trend, strong demands have been actually appeared in the quality of transparent conductive films such as indium-tin-oxide (ITO). Up to now, a lot of studies have been devoted mainly to the electrical and optical properties of ITO films. However, it becomes clear that microstructure of ITO films gives an important influence on the performance and durability of FPD's. In this paper, we tried to improve the microstructure of ITO films by controlling the sputter deposition and plasma treatment conditions in thin film preparation. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of microstructure of ITO films on the electrical properties of Ta-Sn-O films in the system of Al/Ta-Sn-O/ITO layered structure in inorganic electroluminescence displays. It was found that the microstructures of ITO films changed drastically with oxygen partial pressure in Ar-O@sub 2@ sputtering gas; i.e., with increasing oxygen partial pressure, grain size become small and surface morphology become smooth. Measurements of I-V characteristics in Al/Ta-Sn-O/ITO revealed that the leakage current at low electric field has been diminished by the improvement of microstructure of ITO films.