What is ITO used for?

ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) has become one of the most common transparent conducting oxides for a range of areas and applications, the most widely used being touchscreen technology for smartphones, tablets and other electrical appliances.

The reason for this is because of its optical transparency and electrical conductivity and also because of the relative ease when depositing on glass, plastic and thin film.

What is ITO used for – Key areas

• Automotive, Aerospace & Entertainment
• Medical, Imaging & Microscopy
• Research & Development
• Space, Military & Defence and More

As well as touchscreen technology, ITO is used for flat panel and plasma displays, thin film photovoltaics, microscope slides and coverslips, solar panels, aircraft windshields, EMI/RFI shielding, energy efficient windows and glass doors of supermarket freezers.

Moreover, the demand for ITO applications in military areas and in space exploration is continually growing.

Indium Tin Oxide Uses and Applications

As ITO coatings can withstand harsh environments and temperatures, ITO thin film strain gauges can be used in gas turbines and the engines of jets and rockets.

Another notable use for aerospace is that of ITO films use in defrosting an aircraft’s windshield. This is achieved by applying voltage which generates heat that can be conducted by the indium tin oxide coating.

ITO is commonly used as an optical coating, with significant applications including hot mirrors for the automotive industry, beam splitters in fluorescence microscopy and optical eye tracking.

Diamond Coatings offer a wide range of special optical coatings within the visible & infra-red regions of the light spectrum, that can be designed for a variety of incidence angles.

A use of ITO that can be highlighted in is photography. Early digital cameras were often sensitive to infrared radiation, producing contaminated colours. Insertion of a photographic hot mirror filter into the imaging pathway resolved this problem.

Kodak adopted the use of ITO as a sensor coating, to offer upgraded sensors for their later cameras in the Kodak DCS series. The use of ITO as the sensor coating enabled an increase in blue channel response.

Another incidence of ITO being used for optical coatings is in sodium vapor lamp glasses.

ITO coated glass is also being used for low emissivity glass windows as it allows better regulation of temperature to reduce environmental impact.

Antireflection coatings, Bragg reflectors for lasers and electrowetting are other common uses.

To learn more about ITO applications or to get advice on finding the most suitable product for your specific purpose, contact us and speak with an expert.