Transparent conducting films having a hybrid structure of ZTO/Ag/ZTO were prepared on glass substrates by sequential deposition using RF/DC magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The electrical and optical properties of hybrid transparent conducting films were investigated with varying the thickness of Ag and ZTO layers. In order to estimate and compare with the experimental results, the simulation program, EMP (Essential Macleod Program) was adopted. With increasing the Ag thickness, hybrid films showed a noticeable improvement of the electrical conductivity, which is mainly dependent on the electrical characteristic of the Ag layer. ZTO (40 nm) / Ag (12 nm) / ZTO (40 nm) film exhibits a sheet resistance of 5.39 Ω/sq. with an optical transmittance of 89%. This indicates that indium - free ZTO/Ag/ZTO multi layer electrodes are a promising low-cost and low-temperature processing electrode scheme

Keywords: TCO, ZTO, ZTO/Ag/ZTO, EMP, Multilayer.