ITO Thin Films And Their Fine Patterning By Sol-Gel Process

Indium tin oxide exhibits many desirable optical and electrical properties and holds great promise for wide applications in many fields. As a result, it becomes a hot research subject. In this paper, ITO thin films prepared by sol-gel process using organic and inorganic salts as precursors, respectively. On the basis of preparing well-qualified films, the inorganic salts method of chemical modification would be used to fabricate the fine patterning. Finally, we will do some research about the optical and electrical properties of the films prepared by sol-gel process .The results are listed as follows:(1) Using inorganic salts as precursors can fabricate ITO films with 7.20* 10^-3 Ω·cm and transmission 88%, which is better than organic salts method.(2) With the analysis of ITO films Using inorganic salts, We discover that ITO film with a cubic bixbyite structure At the process of doping, each Sn⁴+ replaces an In³+ substitutionally donating a free electron for the conductivity in the process. ITO materials retain the cubic In₂O₃ structure up to the solid solubility limit of SnO₂ in In₂O₃. And the ITO surface is composed of nanometer-scaled particles.(3) We also discover that the chemical modification agent (BzAcH) with In(NO₃)₃.4.5H2O can form the chelate rings containing In ion, therefore the ITO gel films has the characteristics of photosensitivity and thus make it possible to fabricatethe fine patterning with short time and the least scale is 4.386um.