Flash lamp annealing of indium tin oxide thin-films deposited on polyimide backplanes

Xe-arc flashings of 0.4-1.0 ms in pulse duration annealed indium tin oxide (ITO) thin-films deposited on flexible polymeric substrates at room temperature. As flexible substrates, highly transparent polyimide (PI) thin-films of 16 μm in thickness were prepared on a carrier glass. Measuring optical characteristics of the ITO and the PI thin-films and using the Maxwell equations, we estimated complex refractive indices of ITO and PI materials. With the use of these optical properties, one-dimensional conduction/radiation heat transfer simulation was carried out to predict the temperature variations in the specimens, assuring that the temperature in the ITO thin-film during the flash lamp annealing (FLA) process exceeded its crystallization point. Experimental FLA process resulted in a significant enhancement of the electrical conductivities as well as in a slight increase of optical transmittances of the specimen and was compared with the conventional furnace annealing (CFA) process of 1 h. Microscopic changes in the specimen during the annealing processes were compared using the X-ray diffraction pattern, atomic force microscope, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) measurements. Especially SEM images confirmed that sudden degradations in the electrical conductivities of ITO thin-films observed under higher power FLA or higher temperature CFA conditions were strongly related to the physical damages in the thin-films, which were incurred due to the thermal expansion mismatch between the ITO thin-film and the PI substrate at high temperatures.