Fabrication of InZnSiO/Ag/InZnSiO transparence flexible heater on polymer substrate by continuous roll-to-roll sputtering advanced technology

Abstract We fabricated highly effective and transparent film heaters based on a conductive Ag layer sandwiched in between InZnSiO films. This multilayer heater was deposited on a PET film at room temperature using pilot-scale roll-to-roll (RTR) sputtering machine. Due to the selected substrate, the heater was flexible and passed the 10 mm bending radius test. The InZnSiO/Ag/InZnSiO (IAI) multilayer heater displayed a high optical transmittance of 91.91% and a relatively low sheet resistance of 7.83 Ω/sq. This is an excellent chemical combination for fabricating a low voltage and transparent film heater. The time-temperature profiles and heat distribution analysis revealed that the best performance of the transparent film heater was at 2.4 V applied bias case. Due to high mechanical durability, high transparency and required low operating voltage the RTR sputtered IAI multilayer which can be considered one of the best candidates for fabricating highly flexible and transparent film heaters.