Large-area (50 cm × 50 cm) optically transparent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding of ZTO/Ag/ZTO: an analytical/numerical and experimental study of optoelectrical and EMI shielding properties

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), exhibiting both high optical transparency and low electrical resistivity, are commonly employed in optoelectronic devices. However, acquiring a balance between these optical and electrical properties in a uniform way over large areas has been a pending challenge, which is essential to achieving optically transparent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding surfaces. In this study, we propose and demonstrate a stratified thin film structure consisting of zinc-doped tin oxide (Zn2SnO4, ZTO) as TCO along with a metal layer of silver (Ag) deposited on a large area of 50 cm 50 cm polycarbonate (PC) substrate enabled by a scanning magnetron sputtering gun. We achieved high EMI shielding of 99.9% at the optical transparency of 68% in the visible spectrum by engineering the stratified architecture of ZTO/Ag/ZTO. The Ag layer of 18 nm in thickness with a sheet resistance of 10 Ω/sq yields shielding effectiveness (SE) of 27 dB in a wide frequency range of 2–20 GHz. The bottom and top ZTO layers, 20 and 40 nm thick, respectively, provide the lowest optical loss of 13% across 400–700 nm. The structure’s EMI shielding, optical and structural performances were systematically characterized through a free-space focused-beam system, UV–Vis spectrophotometer, ellipsometry, focused ion-beam cross-sectional sampling and imaging, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and secondary ion mass spectroscopy. EMI shielding and optical performances were validated by CST Microwave Studio and the transfer matrix method, respectively. These findings indicate that the proposed multi-layer architecture holds great promise for large-area EMI shielding and other optoelectronic applications.