Effect of Ar Ion Beam Pre-Treatment of Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Substrate on the Mechanical and Electrical Stability of Flexible InSnO Films Grown by Roll-to-Roll Sputtering System

We investigated the effects of Ar ion beam irradiation on a flexible poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) substrate as surface pre-treatment method in the roll-to-roll (R2R) sputtering system and its contribution to the electrical durability of flexible InSnO (ITO) electrode upon that the flexible PET substrate under repeated mechanical stresses. It was found that the Ar ion beam irradiation of the flexible PET surface could improve an adhesion between R2R sputter-grown ITO film and the PET substrate. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results showed that the Ar ion beam irradiation lead to an increase of hydrophilic functional groups when the working pressure, Ar ion beam power, and exposure time increases. Repetitive bending stresses for the flexible ITO/PET film which fabricated through the surface pre-treatment by Ar ion beam irradiation showed more stable electrical durability than those of ITO films on the wet-cleaned PET substrate due to enhanced interfacial adhesion between the ITO film and PET surface. This suggests that the Ar ion beam pre-treatment before sputtering of ITO film in R2R sputtering system is an effective technique to improve the adhesion between ITO film and PET substrate.