Production of New Durable, Transparent Conductive Coatings

Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) is currently used as a transparent electrically conductive coating on aircraft canopies to provide electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding for electronic components. The problem with ITO is that it is relatively soft and scratches easily, requiring frequent replacement of the windscreen, leading to high maintenance costs and aircraft downtime. In addition, ITO is applied by custom equipment using extremely laborious vapor deposition processes, which are expensive, complicated to operate and tend to produce low yield rates. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of using a specialized process to deposit aluminum zinc oxide (AZO) and indium zinc oxide (IZO) transparent conductive coatings as a replacement to ITO. The advantage of both AZO and IZO is that they have hardnesses that are significantly greater than that of ITO and are thus much more scratch resistant and durable than ITO. The deposition process that will be used in this project is much simpler and more forgiving than vapor deposition, producing higher yield rates and less expensive coatings.