Evaluation of electrical resistivity, residual stress and surface roughness of sputtering indium tin oxide films with different thicknesses

This paper investigates the influence of film thickness on the electrical and mechanical properties of transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films. Two groups of ITO thin films deposited on unheated substrates were prepared by the radio-frequency magnetron sputtering technique. The biaxial residual stress and surface roughness for two groups of ITO thin films were measured by a Twyman–Green interferometer and a Linnik microscopic interferometer, respectively. The electrical resistivity of the ITO films was measured by a four-point probe apparatus, the thickness was determined mechanically with a profilometer. The measurement results show that the average resistivity of ITO thin films decreases with increasing the deposited thickness. The compressive residual stress in the ITO thin films decreases with increasing the deposited thickness. We also find that an anisotropic stress in the two groups of ITO films is more compressive in a certain direction. The RMS surface roughness in the two groups of ITO films is less than 1 nm.