No abstract

Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films are widely used as transparent electrodes in electronic devices. Many of those electronic devices are heat sensitive, thus their manufacturing process steps should not exceed 100 °C. Manufacturing competitive high-quality ITO films at low temperature at industrial scale is still a challenge. Magnetron sputtering technology is the most suitable technology fulfilling those requirements. However, ITO layer properties and the reproducibility of the process are extremely sensitive to process parameters. Here, morphological, structural, electrical, and optical characterization of the ITO layers deposited at low temperature has been successfully correlated to magnetron sputtering process parameters. It has been demonstrated that the oxygen flow controls and influences layer properties. For oxygen flow between 3–4 sccm, high quality crystalline layers were obtained with excellent optoelectronic properties (resistivity <8 × 10−4 Ω·cm and visible transmittance >80%). The optimized conditions were applied to successfully manufacture transparent ITO heaters on large area glass and polymeric components. When a low supply voltage (8 V) was applied to transparent heaters (THs), de-icing of the surface was produced in less than 2 min, showing uniform thermal distribution. In addition, both THs (glass and polycarbonate) showed a great stability when exposed to saline solution.

No abstract

No abstract

This paper analyses the application of vanadium microaddition for the production of high strength 16mm diameter wire-rods. Laboratory trials, simulating industrial cooling conditions after hot rolling, were made in a range between 3 and 8°C/s. The results show that introducing vanadium means that it is possible to optimise chemical composition by reducing elements susceptible to segregation. Besides, high strength values are maintained by means of precipitation hardening. The influence of vanadium microalloying on the crystallographic ferrite unit size was also evaluated.