Abstract— SnO2 is considered to be a promising alternative material for indium tin oxide (ITO), which is used for thin‐film transparent electrodes in flat‐panel displays (FPDs) and is facing a serious indium depletion problem. However, annealing processes in the manufacture of plasma‐display panels (PDPs), which are major FPDs, cause high resistivity in SnO2 films. To obtain lower resistivity after the annealing processes, the relationship between deposition conditions and resistivity and the influences of annealing on resistivity, both theoretically and experimentally, were investigated. As a solution, a method involving the formation of a coating of SiO2 on SnO2 is proposed, and a SnO2 resistivity as low as 6.60 × 10−5 Ω‐m was obtained after annealing.

SnO 2 is considered to be a promising alternative material for indium tin oxide (ITO), which is used for transparent electrode in Flat Panel Display (FPD) and is facing a serious indium depletion problem. However, there are some problems such as high resistance, difficulty in processing, and low sintered density, which is necessary to sputtering. We investigated Ta-X doped SnO 2 . Doping these elements enabled sintered density to rise and its specific resistance to decrease below 1.0x10 -2 Ω·cm after dielectric firing, it is low enough to apply to plasma display panel (PDP). Furthermore, the films which we formed were easy to process by YAG laser. Therefore, it is favorable material for transparent electrode of PDP.

We examine SnO2 as a next generation material for transparent electrode using electron beam (EB) plasma deposition method at room temperature. We have found that a SiO2 layer is a very effective barrier in reducing the increase in resistance caused by annealing. Making use of this barrier, we were successful in obtaining SnO2 resistivities as low as 6.60 × 10−5 Ω ⋅ m after annealing.

A Nd:YAG laser process on pure and doped SnO 2 thin films was investigated as a key technology for a next generation flat panel displays manufacture replacing photolithography etching process on Indium-Tin-Oxide that is currently in use. It is found that the laser process is capable of making fine micro patterns on SnO 2 thin films that have high carrier concentration by as low laser energy as 6J/cm 2 .

ITO (Indium-Tin-Oxide) 1)ϳ3) In SnO 2 4)ϳ11) Ta 12)ϳ14) SnO 2 YAG 15)ϳ19) SnO 2 Vol. 12 No. 4 (2009) * * * * Panasonic Corporation (1-15 Matsuo-cho, Kadoma-shi, Osaka 571-8504) YAG SnO 2 2 m m 10 nm 200ϳ300 nm ns 4.0ϫ10 25 m Ϫ3 YAG (1.16 eV) 20 mJ/mm 2