AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Plasma Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session PS1-TuA

Paper PS1-TuA2
Room Temperature Crystallization of ITO Films on Glass and PET Substrates using RF Plasma

Tuesday, November 14, 2006, 2:20 pm, Room 2009

Session: Emerging Plasma Applications
Presenter: H. Ohsaki, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Authors: M. Suzuki, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Y. Shibayama, The University of Tokyo, Japan
A. Kinbara, The University of Tokyo, Japan
T. Watanabe, The University of Tokyo, Japan
H. Ohsaki, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Correspondent: Click to Email
Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) thin films were deposited by DC magnetron sputtering method at room temperature on soda-lime glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates. X-ray diffraction (XRD) profiles indicate that the films have amorphous structure. The films were placed in a barrel-type discharge chamber having a pair of half cylindrical type electrodes installed in the proximity of the barrel wall and were exposed to a capacitively coupled RF(13.56MHz) discharge plasma for 10 minutes. The films were electrically floating during the plasma treatment. Although the temperature rise of the films during this treatment was less than 100°C, the films were crystallized and the XRD peaks were assigned to bixbite indium oxide peaks. The resistivity of the films decreased more than 50% after the plasma treatment. We found from the experimental results with changing the plasma treatment time that the crystallization starts at least 1 minute after the initiation of the plasma treatment and 2 minute treatment is enough to almost complete the crystallization. In order to investigate the effects of the gas component inclusions in the films on the crystallization, Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer measurements were carried out during the whole process. The effects of the carbon contamination, particularly generated from PET substrates will be discussed. Because amorphous ITO films have much smooth surface and our crystallization method does not change the surface roughness, we expect that our method is well applied to current-driven-type devices, like OLED and so on.