SPUTTERING TARGET FOR FORMING TRANSPARENT FILM FOR SOLAR CELLS, AND PROCESS FOR PRODUCTION THEREOF

摘要

Provided are: a sputtering target for forming a transparent film for solar cells, which can achieve the DC sputtering of a ZnO-SiO2-Al2O3 film that has a lower refractive index than that of an AZO film; and a process for producing the sputtering target. The sputtering target comprises a sintered oxide material having a component composition comprising 0.3-4.0 wt% of Al, 6.0-14.5 wt% of Si and a remainder made up by Zn and unavoidable impurities in which all of the amounts are expressed relative to the total amount of all of the metal components, wherein composite oxides Zn2SiO4 and ZnO are contained in the structure of the sintered material. The process for producing the sputtering target comprises: a step of mixing an Al2O3 powder, an SiO2 powder and a ZnO powder together at such a proportion that Al2O3 is contained in an amount of 0.5-5.0 wt%, SiO2 is contained in an amount of 10-22 wt% and the remainder is made up by ZnO and unavoidable impurities, thereby producing a mixed power; and a step of sintering the mixed powder under vacuum by hop pressing.