Microwave Annealing Effects of Indium-Tin-Oxide Thin Films: Comparison with Conventional Annealing Methods

摘要

In this study, an optimized post-deposition heat treatment method isinvestigated to improve the electrical, optical, and structural properties ofindium-tin-oxide (ITO) thin films applied to transparent electrodes in nextgenerationdisplays. In order to improve the properties of ITO thin films,heat treatment is performed using conventional thermal annealing (CTA),rapid thermal annealing (RTA), and microwave annealing (MWA). To evaluatethe effect of MWA on the ITO thin film, the electrical, optical, and structuralcharacteristics of the thin film are analyzed and compared with those of thefilms annealed by traditional CTA and RTA. The results show that theelectrical and optical characteristics of the ITO thin film improve with theincrease in microwave power. In particular, the sheet resistance of the ITOthin film reduces to 4×10~2Ωsq~(-1), despite the microwave power of 250Wand short heat treatment duration of 2.5 min by MWA. In addition, theoptical transmittance of the ITO thin film in the visible region increases to89.5%, superior to the transmittance before heat treatment of 87.5%.