• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.149-154
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• 2017

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) were fabricated using solution-based ITO (Sn-doped $In_2O_3$) nanoinks with nanorods at an annealing temperature of $200^{\circ}C$. In order to optimize their transparent conducting performance, ITO nanoinks were composed of ITO nanoparticles alone and the weight ratios of the nanorods to nanoparticles in the ITO nanoinks were adjusted to 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5. As a result, compared to the other TCOs, the ITO TCOs formed by the ITO nanoinks with weight ratio of 0.1 were found to exhibit outstanding transparent conducting performance in terms of sheet resistance (${\sim}102.3{\Omega}/square$) and optical transmittance (~80.2 %) at 550 nm; these excellent properties are due to the enhanced Hall mobility induced by the interconnection of the composite nanorods with the (440) planes of the short lattice distance in the TCOs, in which the presence of the nanorods can serve as a conducting pathway for electrons. Therefore, this resulting material can be proposed as a potential candidate for solution-based TCOs for use in optoelectronic devices requiring large-scale and low-cost processes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2018.06a
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• pp.56-56
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• 2018

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) have attracted attention due to their high electrical conductivity and optical transparency in the visible region. Consequently, TCOs have been widely used as electrode materials in various electronic devices such as flat panel displays and solar cells. Previous studies on TCOs focused on their electrical and optical performances; there have been numerous attempts to improve these properties, such as chemical doping and crystallinity enhancement. Recently, due to rapidly increasing demand for flexible electronics, the academic interest in the mechanical stability of materials has come to the fore as a major issue. In particular, long-term stability under bending is a crucial requirement for flexible electrodes; however, research on this feature is still in the nascent stage. Hydrogen-incorporated amorphous In-Sn-O (a-ITO) thin films were fabricated by introducing hydrogen gas during deposition. The hydrogen concentration in the film was determined by secondary ion mass spectrometry and was found to vary from $4.7{\times}10^{20}$ to $8.1{\times}10^{20}cm^{-3}$ with increasing $H_2$ flow rate. The mechanical stability of the a-ITO thin films dramatically improved because of hydrogen incorporation, without any observable degradation in their electrical or optical properties. With increasing hydrogen concentration, the compressive residual stress gradually decreased and the subgap absorption at around 3.1 eV was suppressed. Considering that the residual stress and subgap absorption mainly originated from defects, hydrogen may be a promising candidate for defect passivation in flexible electronics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.108-108
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• 2009

ITO에 사용되는 주된 재료인 인듐의 bixbyite 구조는 TCOs의 전기적 특성에서 매우 중요한 것으로 알려져 있다. 때문에 인듐의 Bixbyite구조를 유지하면서 인듐의 사용량을 줄이기 위해 최적의 Solubility limit에 관해 연구하였다. 이를 위해 In2O3-ZnO-SnO2의 삼성분계 기본 조성에 두가지 물질을 추가로 첨가하여 첨가량에 따른 Solubility limit을 연구하였다. Solubility limit의 측정을 위해 X-ray Diffractometer(XRD)를 사용하였으며, 첨가 원소의 양이 증가할수록 TCOs target의 Latice parameter값은 작아졌다, SEM을 통한 미세구조의 관찰로 원소첨가에 따른 샘플의 소결에너지 변화를 분석할 수 있었다. 제작된 시편의 정성분석 및 Chemical binding Energy를 측정하기 위해 X-ray Photo Spectroscopy (XPS)를 이용하였으며, 전기적인 특성 측정을위해 4-Point prove mesurement 방법을 사용하였다.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.41-46
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• 2015

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) are essential material in optoelectronics such as solar cells, touch screens and light emitting diodes. Particularly TCOs are attractive material for infrared cut off film due to their high transparency in the visible wavelength range and high infrared reflectivity. Among the TCO, Indium tin oxide has been widely used because of the high electrical conductivity and transparency in the visible wavelength region. But ITO has several limitations; expensive and low environmental stability. On the other hands, fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) is well known for low cost, weather ability and stable in acidic and hydrogen. In this study, two different magnetron sputtering techniques with RF and DC modes at room temperature deposition of FTO thin film was conducted. The change of oxygen content is influence on the topography, transmittance and refractive index.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.9
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• pp.491-496
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• 2011

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) used in the antireflection layer and current spreading layer of heterojunction solar cells should have excellent optical and electrical properties. Furthermore, TCOs need a high work function over 5.2 eV to prevent the effect of emitter band-bending caused by the difference in work function between emitter and TCOs. Sn-doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) film is a highly promising material as a TCO due to its excellent optical and electrical properties. However, ITO films have a low work function of about 4.8 eV. This low work function of ITO films leads to deterioration of the conversion efficiency of solar cells. In this work, ITO films with various Zn contents of 0, 6.9, 12.7, 28.8, and 36.6 at.% were fabricated by a co-sputtering method using ITO and AZO targets at room temperature. The optical and electrical properties of Zn-doped ITO thin films were analyzed. Then, silicon heterojunction solar cells with these films were fabricated. The 12.7 at% Zn-doped ITO films show the highest hall mobility of 35.71 $cm^2$/Vsec. With increasing Zn content over 12.7, the hall mobility decreases. Although a small addition of Zn content increased the work function, further addition of Zn content over 12.7 at.% led to decreasing electrical properties because of the decrease in the carrier concentration and hall mobility. Silicon heterojunction solar cells with 12.7 at% Zn-doped ITO thin films showed the highest conversion efficiency of 15.8%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.04c
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• pp.41-41
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• 2008

Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have been fabricated by vertical in-line dc magnetron sputtering for transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) applications. The effects of substrate temperature and dc power on the characteristics of AZO thin films are investigated and also optimized the process conditions to get the best electrical and optical properties. The fabricated thin films show a good electrical and optical uniformity within ${\pm}5%$ over the whole area of substrate ($200mm\;{\times}\;200mm$) ; the minimum resistivity of $8\;{\times}\;10^{-4}\;{\Omega}cm$ and the average transmittance of 90% within the visible wavelength range. We have found that the band gap ($E_g$) increases with increasing substrate temperature and dc power, whereas the crystallinity is getting improved with increasing substrate temperature. The binding energy of Zn $2p_{3/2}$ and O 1s is observed to decrease as the substrate temperature increases.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.42.2-42.2
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• 2010

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) are of significant importance for their applications in various devices, such as light-emitting diodes, thin-film solar cells, organic light-emitting diodes, liquid crystal displays, and so on. In order for TCOs to contribute to the performance improvement of these devices, TCOs should have high transmittance and good electrical properties simultaneously. Sn-doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) is the most commonly used TCO. However, indium is toxic and scarce in nature. Thus, ZnO has attracted a lot of attention because of the possibility for replacing ITO. In particular, group III impurity-doped ZnO showed the optoelectronic properties comparable to those of ITO electrodes. Al-doped ZnO exhibited the best performance among various doped ZnO films because of the high substitutional doping efficiency. However, in order for the Al-doped ZnO to replace ITO in electronic devices, their electrical and optical properties should further significantly be improved. In this connection, different ways such as a variation of deposition conditions, different deposition techniques, and post-deposition annealing processes have been investigated so far. Among the deposition methods, RF magnetron sputtering has been extensively used because of the easiness in controlling deposition parameters and its fast deposition rate. In addition, when combined with post-deposition annealing in a reducing ambient, the optoelectronic properties of Al-doped ZnO films were found to be further improved. In this presentation, we deposited Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:$Al_2O_3$ = 98:2 wt%) thin films on the glass and sapphire substrates using RF magnetron sputtering as a function of substrate temperature. In addition, the ZnO samples were annealed in different conditions, e.g., rapid thermal annealing (RTA) at $900^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ ambient for 1 min, tube-furnace annealing at $500^{\circ}C$ in $N_2:H_2$=9:1 gas flow for 1 hour, or RTA combined with tube-furnace annealing. It is found that the mobilities and carrier concentrations of the samples are dependent on growth temperature followed by one of three subsequent post-deposition annealing conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.168-168
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• 2010

Transparent conduction oxides (TCOs) films is extensively reported for optoelectronic devices application such as touch panels, solar cells, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and organic light emitting diodes(OLEDs). Among the many TCO film, indium tin oxide(ITO) is in great demand due to the growth of flat panel display industry. However, indium is not only high cost but also its deposits dwindling. Therefore, many studies are being done on the transparent conductive oxides(TCOs). We fabricated a target of IZTO(In2O3:ZnO:SnO2=70:15:15 wt.%) reduced indium. Then, IZTO thin films were deposited on glass substrates by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering with various oxygen flow ratio. The substrate temperature was fixed at the room temperature. We investigated the electrical, optical, structural properties of IZTO thin films. The electrical properties of IZTO thin films were dependent on the oxygen partial pressure. As a result, the most excellent properties of IZTO thin films were obtained at the 3% of oxygen flow rate with the low resistivity of $7.236{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}cm$. And also the optical properties of IZTO thin films were shown the good transmittance over 80%. These IZTO thin films were used to fabricated organic light emitting diodes(OLEDs) as anode and the device performances studied. The OLED with an IZTO anode deposited at optimized deposition condition showed good brightness properties. Therefore, IZTO has utility value of TCO electrode although it reduced indium and we expect it is possible for the IZTO to apply to flexible display due to the low processing temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.324-324
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• 2012

투명전도체(Transparent Conducting Oxides: TCOs)는 일반적으로 면저항이 $103{\Omega}/sq$ 이하로 전기가 잘 통하며, 가시광선영역인 380~780 nm에서의 투과율이 80% 이상이고, 3.2eV 이상의 밴드갭을 가지는 재료로써, 전기전도도와 가시광선영역에서 투과성이 높아 전기적, 광학적 재료로 관심을 받아 다년간 연구대상이 되어오고 있다. 현재 가장 널리 사용되고 있는 투명전도체(Transparent Conducting Oxides: TCOs) 소재로는 Indium Tin Oxide (ITO)가 가장 각광받고 있지만, Indium의 가격상승과 박막의 열처리를 통해 저항이 증가하는 단점을 가지고 있어 이를 대체 할 새로운 소재 개발이 필요한 상황이다. 그러므로 투명전도체 소재 개발에 있어서 가장 중요한 연구과제는 Indium Tin Oxide(ITO)의 단점을 개선시키고 안정된 고농도의 In-Zn-Sn-O(ITZO) 박막을 성장시키는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 RF스퍼터링법에 의하여 Si wafer에 In-Zn-Sn-O(IZTO)를 $350{\AA}$ 만큼 증착시키고, 1시간 동안 $300^{\circ}C$, $350^{\circ}C$, $400^{\circ}C$로 각각 열처리 하였다. 박막의 전자적, 광학적 특성은 XPS(X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), REELS(Reflection Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy)를 이용하여 연구하였다. XPS측정결과, ITZO박막은 In-O, Sn-O and Zn-O의 결합을 가지고 있고, 박막의 열처리를 통해 $400^{\circ}C$에서 Zn2p의 피크가 가장 크게 나타나는 반면 In3d와 Sn3d는 열처리를 했을 때가 Room Temperature에서 보다 피크가 작아지는 것을 확인하였다. 이는 $400^{\circ}C$에서 Zn가 표면에 편석됨을 나타낸다. 그리고 REELS를 이용해 Ep=1500 eV에서의 밴드갭을 얻어보면, 밴드갭은 $3.25{\pm}0.05eV$로 온도에 크게 변화하지 않았다. 또한 QUEELS -Simulation에 의한 광학적 특성 분석 결과, 가시광선영역인 380nm~780nm에서의 투과율이 83%이상으로 투명전자소자로의 응용이 가능하다는 것을 보여주었다.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.652-657
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• 2015

We have investigated the properties of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films as functions of atomic layer deposition (ALD) oxidants. AZO transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) layer was deposited by ALD with adding trimethylaluminum (TMA) and diethylzinc (DEZn). AZO films were deposited at low temperature with $H_2O$ and $O_3$ as oxidants. Electrical, optical and structural properties of AZO thin films were investigated by 4-point probe, Hall effect measurement, UV-VIS, and AFM. Microstructure and atomic bonding states were investigated by HRXRD and XPS. The resistivity of AZO films grown using $H_2O$ was lower than the films grown using $H_2O$ and $O_3$, by approximately two orders of magnitude. The differences in oxygen vacancy peak intensity of AZO films were correlated to the optical and electrical properties.