Specific Process Knowledge/Thin film deposition/Deposition of ITO

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Deposition of ITO

ITO (indium tin oxide) can be deposited by sputtering here at DTU Nanolab. An ITO target is used and it may be sputtered either non-reactively in Ar or reactively in a mixture of Ar and O₂.

We have acquired a lot of knowledge about ITO deposition in our Cluster Lesker system, and results are summarized on a page here:

• Sputtering of ITO in Sputter-System Metal-Oxide (PC1).

Comparison of the methods for deposition of ITO

	Sputter-System(Lesker)	Sputter-System Metal-Oxide(PC1)
Generel description	RF sputtering of an ITO target - reactive sputtering possible	RF sputtering of an ITO target - reactive sputtering possible (not recommended due to arching) Pulsed DC sputtering of an ITO target - reactive sputtering possible
Stoichiometry	Not known	In:Sn:O ~ 39:3:58 in the acceptance test. Can be tuned by altering deposition conditions.
Film Thickness	few nm - ~ 200 nm	few nm - ~ 1 μm
Deposition rate	0.5-2 nm/min	at least up to ~ 10 nm/min (see conditions)
Step coverage	unknown	unknown
Process Temperature	Up to 400 °C (tool limit)	Up to 600 °C (tool limit)
Substrate size	chips 1x 100 mm wafer 1x 150 mm wafer	chips 10x 100 mm wafer 10x 150 mm wafer
Allowed materials	almost any	almost any that does not degas. Note special carrier for III-V materials. See cross-contamination sheet.