Preparation of Indium Tin Oxide Inks for Electrically Conductive Transparent Oxide Film with Ink-Jet Printing Method

The ink-jet printing method is an important process in display industry due to the low-cost production of large-scale electronic devices. In this work, we prepared the nanoparticle indium tin oxide (ITO) solutions for ink-jet printing and characterized the electrical, structural and morphological properties of the film. The improvement of conductivity after reduction process was correlated with the sharpening of the diffraction peak as proved by X-ray diffraction measurement. The ITO inks was coated on a glass by spin-coating process and patterned by the ink-jet printing technique using a 50 mu m diameter ink-jet nozzle. The sheet resistance and optical transmission of ITO thin film was ca. 50 similar to 300 Omega/sq and ca. 75 similar to 95%, respectively. The electrical resistance of patterned ITO lines showed about 5 similar to 30* 10(3)Omega. The detailed relationship between microstructure and properties are discussed.