Mechanical Integrity of Flexible In--Zn--Sn--O Film for Flexible Transparent Electrode

The mechanical integrity of transparent In--Zn--Sn--O (IZTO) films is investigated using outer/inner bending, stretching, and twisting tests. Amorphous IZTO films are grown using a pulsed DC magnetron sputtering system with an IZTO target on a polyimide substrate at room temperature. Changes in the optical and electrical properties of IZTO films depend on the oxygen partial pressure applied during the film deposition process. In the case of 3% oxygen partial pressure, the IZTO films exhibit s resistivity of $8.3\times 10^{-4}$ $\Omega$ cm and an optical transmittance of 86%. The outer bending test shows that the critical bending radius decreases from 10 to 7.5 mm when the oxygen partial pressure is increased from 1 to 3%. The inner bending test reveals that the critical bending radius of all IZTO films is 3.5 mm regardless of oxygen partial pressure. The IZTO films also show excellent mechanical reliability in the bending fatigue tests of more than 10,000 cycles. In the uniaxial stretching tests, the electrical resistance of the IZTO film does not change until a strain of 2.4% is reached. The twisting tests demonstrate that the electrical resistance of IZTO films remains unchanged up to 25°. These results suggest that IZTO films have excellent mechanical durability and flexibility in comparison with already reported crystallized indium tin oxide (ITO) films.