Study of high-density AZO ceramic target

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) powders and the powders doped with niobium and gallium were prepared by chemical co-precipitation method. The AZO targets with high density were made by molding and atmospheric pressure sintering. The morphologies, microstructure, and electrical property of the AZO targets were characterized by XRD, SEM, and Hall test. The measured results have showed that the resistivity of AZO target is 2.14×10−3 Ω cm, the relative density of target is up to 99.46%, and the mass loss rate is less than 2.36%. The high-density target lies in the fact that the nano-particles have large specific area and the distribution of the particles is homogeneous. The reason for low resistivity AZO targets is the oxygen vacancies and free electrons induced by Al3+ replacing Zn2+. When the sintering temperature is 1450 °C, the relative density of Ga and Nb-doped AZO targets is slightly more than that of pure AZO target.