Manufacture of configurable equipment of thin-film deposit by SILAR with magnetic stirring.

Abstract For the deposition of thin films by SILAR method, a robotic device was developed, with a low-cost microcontroller Arduino nano, a rotary encoder, and a LCD20X4 screen for the user interface in which a series of menus deploys allowing the selection of the process in order to synthesize a semiconductor, parameters of SnO2, CdS, ZnS and MnS are previously loaded obtaining reproducibility and minimizing errors, especially in series of many samples. The system is independent of a computer, giving more possibilities for transportation; if the process requires heating and stirring, it is included in the device and its control. A glass slide was used as substrate in six repositories for recipients of 35 ml, thus producing samples without excessive waste of precursors; initially six recipients are included in the system, the number of recipients can be increased taking in consideration the length of the rail, which opens the possibility to deposit multilayer films in a single process, with the condition to occupy the same anionic precursor. This aims for better grain boundaries, less contamination between layers of a device, self-doping, and reduced secondary phases. We report the making of our own SILAR equipment and characterization of SnO2 films deposited on glass slices by Uv-Vis spectrophotometer determined a characteristic absorption edge at 350 nm, four-point "Kelvin" method for electrical properties obtaining average electrical resistance of 16×103(Ω), and Scanning Electron Microscope images for superficial morphology, clarifying the use of this material as a transparent conductive oxide.