Highly conductive SnO₂ thin films for flat‐panel displays

SnO 2 is considered to be a promising alternative material for indium tin oxide (ITO), which is used for thin‐film transparent electrodes in flat‐panel displays (FPDs) and is facing a serious indium depletion problem. However, annealing processes in the manufacture of plasma‐display panels (PDPs), which are major FPDs, cause high resistivity in SnO 2 films. To obtain lower resistivity after the annealing processes, the relationship between deposition conditions and resistivity and the influences of annealing on resistivity, both theoretically and experimentally, were investigated. As a solution, a method involving the formation of a coating of SiO 2 on SnO 2 is proposed, and a SnO 2 resistivity as low as 6.60 × 10 −5 Ω‐m was obtained after annealing.