Coating surfaces with indium-tin oxide while being argon ion bombarded to allow low temperature coating

摘要

Surfaces are coated with an indium-tin oxide (ITO) layer while being bombarded with argon ions at 60-90 eV. Preferred Features: Bombardment is carried out at 0.05-0.15 (especially 0.1) mA/cm2 current density and 65 eV ion energy. When the substrate is an inorganic substrate, it is pretreated by argon ion bombardment at 150 eV and 0.1 mA/cm2 for 30 sec. When the substrate is an organic substrate, it is plasma pretreated in a vacuum with supply of reactive oxygen and water containing gas, especially air with -40% relative humidity. The coating comprises alternate layers of ITO and SiO2, the substrate being argon ion bombarded at 150 eV during SiO2 deposition. A suitable coating comprises a SiO2 layer sandwiched between two ITO layers and optionally a top SiO2 layer, the upper ITO layer being thinner or thicker depending on whether an antistatic effect or additional h.f. screening is desired.