An alternative transparent conducting oxide to ITO for the a-Si:H TFT-LCD applications

We propose aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO), for the first time, as an alternative transparent conducting oxide to indium tin oxide (ITO) for the application to a-Si:H TFT-LCDs. AZO films have an optical transmittance (/spl sim/92% in the visible light spectrum) and electrical resistivity (/spl sim/7.5/spl times/10(-4) /spl Omega/-cm) comparable to ITO films. Unlike ITO films, AZO films show good chemical stability during the deposition of a-SiNx:H layer and no optical transparency degradation has been found. In addition, in the patterning of AZO films, a high etch rate (-103 /spl Aring//sec), no etching residue formation, and uniform etching for micro-patterns have been established for AZO films.