GENERAL TECHNOLOGICAL MODELING METHOD FOR THE DESIGN OF TRANSPARENT CONDUCTIVE IN2O3 ELECTRODES

Highly conductive transparent indium oxide (In2O3) thin films were pre pared by DC magnetron sputtering using pure indium oxide targets in a pure argon (Ar) atmosphere. A linear programming method for the design and optimization of the process was used. The physical model of the s puttering process was based on randomly selected sections of the param eter space. The processing model was optimized by the ''steep rise'' m ethod, using the mathematical model gradient to obtain optimal paramet ers. The active independent factors of the sputtering process were Ar pressure during the process, substrate temperature, target voltage and deposition time. As a result of the optimization process, the transpa rent conductive indium oxide thin films had the following characterist ics: Transmittance (T) was 90.7% at lambda = 550 nm on glass substrate s with an uncoated external T = 91.1% and resistivity of up to 0.043 O mega cm for a 250 nm film thickness. Thus, the linear model method for the design and optimization of this multiparameter physical process w as effective. (C) 1998 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-2101(98)02304-5 ].