A LINEAR-MODEL APPLICATION FOR THE DESIGN OF TRANSPARENT CONDUCTIVE IN2O3 COATINGS

Highly transparent conductive indium oxide (In2O3) thin films were pre pared by DC magnetron sputtering using a pure indium oxide target in a n argon atmosphere. A linear programming method for the production des ign of these thin films using a sputtering process was proposed. Sputt ering model calculations were founded on the 'random partial sections in a multi-factor's space' theory. The obtained model was further opti mized by the 'precipitous rise' method in order to obtain optimal proc essing parameters. The chosen active factors of the sputtering process (independent of each other) were: argon pressure; substrate temperatu re; target voltage; and deposition duration. As a result of the optimi zation process, the obtained transparent conductive indium oxide thin films had the following parameters: transparency in 550 nm-90.7% (incl uding the glass substrate having an absolute transparency of 91.08%); resistivity of up to 0.043 Omega cm for a 2500 Angstrom film thickness . (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.