AVS 56th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Thin Film Thursday Sessions
       Session TF-ThP

Paper TF-ThP13
Electrical Resistivity Change of Al:ZnO Thin Films Dynamically Deposited by Bipolar Pulsed DC Sputtering with a Remote Plasma Source

Thursday, November 12, 2009, 6:00 pm, Room Hall 3

Session: Aspects of Thin Films Poster Session
Presenter: W. Yang, Kunsan National University, Republic of Korea
Authors: W. Yang, Kunsan National University, Republic of Korea
J. Joo, Kunsan National University, Republic of Korea
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Bipolar pulsed DC magnetron sputtering is used to deposit Al-doped ZnO (AZO) for a transparent conducting oxide in a solar cell structure. A 5-inch × 25-inch AZO target was sputtered by a bipolar pulsed DC power supply to deposit AZO thin films on a 400-mm × 400-mm glass substrate by swinging it back and forth over a cathode. Because of this dynamic deposition process, a zigzagged columnar structure observed. It decreased electrical resistivity. To recover the disadvantage, a remote plasma source (RPS) was used to give more mobility to adatoms, resulting in lowered resistivity. However, it increased from 2.11 × 10-3 W·cm to 2.30 × 10-3 W·cm as the power of remote plasma source was increased over some threshold value. By using RPS, the deposition rate decreased, but we expect that the resistivity becomes better because the additional ions may disturb the formation of a zigzag-type column structure. In this paper, we will address how the RPS affects the resistivity of the AZO thin films during the dynamic deposition process by plasma characterizations and microstructure analysis.