Electrical and mechanical properties of indium-tin-oxide films deposited on polymer substrate using organic buffer layer

The electrical and mechanical properties in indium-tin-oxide films deposited on polymer substrate were examined. The materials of substrates were polyethersulfone (PES) which have gas barrier layer and anti-glare coating for plastic-based devices. The experiments were performed by rf-magnetron sputtering using a special instrument and buffer layers. Therefore, we obtained a very flat polymer substrate deposited ITO film and investigated the effects of buffer layers, and the instrument. Moreover, the influences of an oxygen partial pressure and post-deposition annealing in ITO films deposited on polymer substrates were clarified. X-ray diffraction observation, measurement of electrical property, and optical microscope observation were performed for the investigation of micro-structure and electro-mechanical properties, and they indicated that as-deposited ITO thin films are amorphous and become quasi-crystalline after adjusting oxygen partial pressure and thermal annealing above 180 °C. As a result, we obtained 20–25 O/sq of ITO films with good transmittance (above 80 %) ofoxygen contents with under 0.2 % and vacuum annealing. Furthermore, using organic buffer layer, we obtained ITO films which have a rather high electrical resistance (40–45 O/sq) but have improved optical (more than 85 %) and mechanical characteristics compared to the counterparts. Consequently, a prototype reflective color plastic film LCD was fabricated using the PES polymer substrates to confirm whether the ITO films could be realized in accordance with our experimental results.