ITO coated flexible transparent substrates for liquid crystal based devices

Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films were successfully deposited onto transparent flexible substrates of hydroxypropylcellulose crosslinked with 1,4-Di-isocyanatobutane (BDI). According to our results, flexible substrates produced with a sol/gel fraction of 0.16 can reach, under vacuum conditions, a working temperature, T-s approximate to 150degreesC. The effect Of O-2 plasma exposure on the transmittance and sheet resistance of the ITO coated flexible substrates has been studied. Atomic force microscopy shows that these type of substrates have a large surface roughness (4.8 nm) which originates high values in the diffuse transmittance. A memory of the large surface features of the flexible substrate is retained in the growing of ITO thin film. The best properties of the resulting ITO coated flexible substrates are an average total transmittance in the visible region of about 80% and a sheet resistance of about 4 x 10(4) Omega/sq. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.