A study of degradation of indium tin oxide thin films on glass for display applications

Indium tin oxide (ITO) has been widely used in liquid crystal displays (LCD). Contamination and moisture have proved to have the adverse effect of causing ITO corrosion/degradation. The purpose of this paper is to determine if scratching the surface of ITO is a cause of ITO degradation. Additionally, the influence of the width of ITO tracks on degradation was observed under accelerated testing. Simultaneously, anisotropic conductive adhesive film (ACF) was added to the ITO surface, to determine any adverse degradation effect. It was determined that the time to initiate corrosion was faster if the ITO was scratched, and that the degradation was directly related to the surface area of the ITO electrodes.

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