Properties of reactive magnetron sputtered ITO films without in-situ substrate heating and post-deposition annealing

Indium tin oxide (ITO) films were prepared on polyester, Si and glass subst rate with relatively high deposition rate of above 0.9 nm/s by DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique at the sputtering pressure of 0.06 Pa system , respectively. The dependence of resistivity on deposition parameters, suc h as deposition rate, target-to-substrate distance (TSD), oxygen flow rate and sputtering time (thickness), has been investigated, together with the s tructural and the optical properties. It was revealed that ail 110 films ex hibited lattice expansion. The resistivity of ITO thin films shows signific ant substrate effect: much lower resistivity and broader process window hav e been reproducibly achieved for the deposition of ITO films onto polyester rather than those prepared on both Si and glass substrates. The films with resistivity of as low as 4.23 x 10(-4) R cm and average transmittance of s imilar to 78% at wavelength of 400 similar to 700 nm have been achieved for the films on polyester at room temperature.