Optical and electrical studies of sputter-deposited transparent and conducting ITO/Ag/ITO multilayer on Kapton® substrate for transparent flexible electronic applications

Abstract

Transparent and conducting thin films on flexible substrates have enormous applications in the areas of space, solar, displays, etc. We hereby report the sputter deposition of transparent and conducting ITO/Ag/ITO (IAI) thin films on commercially available flexible Kapton® substrate at a lower substrate temperature. IAI multilayer has been deposited by magnetron sputtering system using an alloy In:Sn (90% :10%) and Ag targets at room temperature without breaking the vacuum. The optimized IAI coating shows high transmittance (∼81.3 % at γ= 650 nm) along with very low resistance (8.36 ω/). Optical haze value of IAI on Kapton was measured and found to be <7%. The figure of merit of IAI coating on Kapton® has been calculated using the Haacke's formula π = r10/Rs. At γ= 650 nm π = 15 × 10 ω was observed. Our findings give worthful insight into the sputter deposition of transparent conducting IAI coating on flexible Kapton® substrate for flexible electronics applications. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.