Optoelectronic Properties of Indium–Tin Oxide Films Deposited on Flexible and Transparent Poly(dimethylsiloxane) Substrate

Abstract

In this article, we report the thin-film deposition of indium–tin oxide (ITO) as a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) on a flexible and transparent poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) substrate by RF sputtering. PDMS, an elastomeric polymer, is highly transparent and can withstand much higher temperatures (∼200 °C) than other commercially used polymers in electronics. In this study, we discussed the Hall electrical measurements and optical transmittance data for ITO thin films on a PDMS substrate. We demonstrated that the transparent PDMS polymer is a new flexible TCO material, with suitable electrical and optical properties for use in electronic devices. An ITO thin film with an electrical resistivity of 3.8 ×10-5 Ω cm, a carrier concentration of 5.9×1021 cm3, a mobility of 3 cm2 V-1 s-1, and an average transmittance of 83% was achieved on the PDMS polymeric substrate.

Probing the effects of thermal treatment on the electronic structure and mechanical properties of Ti-doped ITO thin films

“…ITO-based TCO films can exhibit different electro-optical, mechanical, electronic structure and composition properties depending on manufacturing technique. Many deposition techniques are used to prepare TCO coatings such as Dc and/or RF sputtering, chemical vapour deposition, reactive evaporation, molecular beam epitaxy, sol-gel method, electron beam evaporation and pulsed laser deposition [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. However, the sol-gel technique has many advantages including cost effectiveness, short processing time, simplicity and the opportunity to fabricate coatings with high scalability along with the flexibility of finetuning coatings to have preferred shapes and surface areas [15][16][17][18].…”

A transparent stretchable sensor for distinguishable detection of touch and pressure by capacitive and piezoresistive signal transduction

“…One more challenge was to fabricate a TS electrode with high mechanical stretchability, optical transparency, and electrical conductance. Although conventional ITO materials have been tested for use as stretchable electrodes, cyclic stretching causes severe cracking of ITO thin films, and their mechanical and electrical stabilities are very poor [42][43][44] . The GIG electrode based on transparent, conductive but brittle ITO thin films sandwiched between ultrathin metal layers formed on a stress-relieving 3D micropatterned elastomeric substrate by conventional thin-film processing shows potential for developing TS electrodes for many applications, although further improvements in optical transparency are necessary.…”

Fabrication of Piezoelectric ZnO Nanowires Energy Harvester on Flexible Substrate Coated with Various Seed Layer Structures

“…The second type of electrode consisted of coating the PDMS substrate with an ITO layer. In order to avoid cracks on its surface and ensure good conductivity, the ITO deposition protocol was based on the report of Lien et al [18] and Casper et al [19]. Therefore, a 400 nm thick layer of ITO was radio frequency (RF) sputtered at room temperature in two steps, as described in Table 1.…”