Development of a Quality Control System for Transparent Conductive Oxides

When controlling the quality parameters of transparent conductive coatings, the problem of analyzing the causes leading to defects arises. The use of the following seven basic tools for quality control of methods with a 95% probability allows the problem to be solved. For the initial assessment of the samples quality, it was decided to use the following quality control methods: Ishikawa diagram, Pareto diagram, control cards. An analysis of the proposed Ishikawa diagram revealed that the significant factors affecting the quality of transparent conductive oxides are the choice of precursor and impurities for the solution, the preparation of the solution and substrate, the choice of production method, the design of the atomizer and reaction chamber. According to the Pareto diagram, the most common defect is high resistance, the reason for the increase of which must be corrected first. ABC analysis showed that the most significant group A includes the following defects: unsatisfactory high resistance, unsatisfactory uniformity, and unsatisfactory high thickness. The control card for the “resistance” parameter shows that a number of surface resistance values are out of range. But considering that the surface resistance values that are under the lower boundary curve are small, which, on the contrary, affects the quality of the coating for the better; it is worth taking into account only the upper boundary line.