A novel triple-layered transparent conductive film, AZO/Pd/AZO (APA), was deposited via magnetron sputtering on glass substrate at room temperature. The structural, morphological, electrical and optical properties of the APA films were systematically investigated with various Pd layer thicknesses and annealing temperatures in hydrogen atmosphere. The experiment results show that APA films are polycrystalline with a preferred (002) orientation. Comparing with that for the un-annealed films, the resistivity of APA film annealed in hydrogen atmosphere rapidly decreases from 1.84 x 10(-3) Omega cm to 4.8 x 10(-4) Omega cm, while the transmittance decreased slightly with increasing annealing temperature to 400 degrees C. Optical measurements indicated that the optical band gap (E-g) of APA films varies from 3.37 eV to 3.69 eV with adjusting annealing temperature from 200 degrees C to 500 degrees C. The very low resistivity of 4.8 x 10(-4) Omega cm with a sheet resistance of 45 Omega/sq, a transmittance of 83.2% and a figure of merit value of 3.53 x 10(-3) Omega(-1) were obtained by AZO (50 nm)/Pd (7 nm)/AZO (50 nm) structure after hydrogen annealing at 400 degrees C. These results support that the use of Pd insertion in transparent metal oxide electrode for its hydrogen sensitive property. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.