Study on Ag mesh/conductive oxide hybrid transparent electrode for film heaters

Ag mesh-indium tin oxide (ITO) hybrid transparent conductive films were fabricated and evaluated for use in film heaters. PS monolayer templates were prepared using highly mono-dispersed PS spheres (11.2 μm) obtained by a filtering process with micro-sieves. At first, three Ag meshes with different sheet resistances (20, 100, and 300 Ω sq(-1)) and transmittances (70, 73, and 76%) were evaluated for film heaters in terms of voltage and long-term stability. Subsequently, in an effort to obtain better transmittance, Ag mesh-ITO hybrid heaters were fabricated utilizing finite ITO depositions. At the optimised ITO thickness (15 nm), the sheet resistance and the transmittance were 300 Ω sq(-1) and 88%, respectively, which indicates that this material is a good potential candidate for an efficient defroster in vehicles.