Effects of oxygen flow velocity on the sintering properties of ITO targets

Due to the considerable influence of oxygen flow on the resistivity and transmittance of ITO films, the study on the effects of oxygen flow velocity on the sintering properties of ITO targets has a positive role in promoting their use in large output industries. In the work, ITO targets of three sintering conditions were used to reveal the action mechanism of oxygen flow velocity on the phase and elemental composition, micro-morphology, density, mass loss ratio, oxide content, resistivity and elemental chemical states by XRD, BSE, EPMA, SEM, XRF and XPS et al. ITO target sintered under oxygen flow velocity of 10 L/min owns super high relative density of 99.83%, mass loss ratio of 1.417% and the minimum resistivity of 1.583 × 10−4 Ω·cm. It can conclude that the increase of oxygen flow velocity can increase the oxygen pressure within the sintering furnace, which can influence the mass transport mechanism throughout the whole sintering process, improve the density of ITO targets, and decrease the InO formation of the target interior as a result of maintaining the mass content ratio of indium to tin and decreasing the resistivity of ITO targets.