General technological modeling method for the design of transparent conductive In₂O₃ electrodes

Highly conductive transparent indium oxide (In₂O₃) thin films were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering using pure indium oxide targets in a pure argon (Ar) atmosphere. A linear programming method for the design and optimization of the process was used. The physical model of the sputtering process was based on randomly selected sections of the parameter space. The processing model was optimized by the "steep rise" method, using the mathematical model gradient to obtain optimal parameters. The active independent factors of the sputtering process were Ar pressure during the process, substrate temperature, target voltage and deposition time. As a result of the optimization process, the transparent conductive indium oxide thin films had the following characteristics: Transmittance (T) was 90.7% at λ = 550 nm on glass substrates with an uncoated external T = 91.1% and resistivity of up to 0.043 Ω cm for a 250 nm film thickness. Thus, the linear model method for the design and optimization of this multiparameter physical process was effective.