Investigation of the properties of indium zinc oxide (IZO) thin films sputter-deposited on LCD-grade glass substrate showed that the resistivity of an IZO film decreases markedly as the substrate temperature is increased from room-temperature to 120°C. This phenomenon can be attributed to the growth of In-Zn intermetallic compounds in the amorphous region as a result of annealing. The compound growth was observed by plan-view transmission electron microscopy.
Although the transmittance and resistivity of IZO are inferior to those of indium-tin oxide, these disadvantages do not present any difficulties in the practical use of IZO for designing TFT-LCDs. Since IZO is an amorphous material, we propose a five-mask process with this characteristic.