THIN-FILM COATINGS, ELECTRO-OPTIC ELEMENTS AND ASSEMBLIES INCORPORATING THESE ELEMENTS
First Claim
1. A transflective electro-optic (EO) mirror element for use in a vehicular rearview assembly, said transflective EO mirror element comprisinga first glass substrate having first and second surfaces, the first surface corresponding to a front of said rearview assembly, the second surface carrying a transparent electrically-conductive layer thereon;
- a second glass substrate having third and fourth surfaces and disposed in a spaced-apart and parallel relationship with respect to the first substrate such as to form a gap between the second and third surfaces opposing one another, the third surface having a thin-film stack thereon that includes a layer of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) carrying a layer of high-reflectance material, wherein a value of sheet resistance of said thin-film stack is less than 6.8 ohms/square, a value of absorbance of said first substrate with the thin-film stack thereon is greater than 12%, a value of reflectance of said first substrate with the thin-film stack thereon is greater than 63%, and a value of transmittance of said first substrate with the thin-film stack thereon is greater than 2.5%;
andan EO medium in said gap;
wherein values of reflectance, absorbance, transmittance, and color characteristics are measured in light from a D65 standard illuminant, andwherein the high-reflectance material includes a material that defines higher reflectance relative to a material, of the thin-film stack, a contribution of which to a sheet resistance of the thin-film stack is the largest.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Electro-optic elements are becoming commonplace in a number of vehicular and architectural applications. Various electro-optic element configurations provide variable transmittance and or variable reflectance for windows and mirrors. The present invention relates to various thin-film coatings, electro-optic elements and assemblies incorporating these elements.
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Citations
63 Claims
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1. A transflective electro-optic (EO) mirror element for use in a vehicular rearview assembly, said transflective EO mirror element comprising
a first glass substrate having first and second surfaces, the first surface corresponding to a front of said rearview assembly, the second surface carrying a transparent electrically-conductive layer thereon; -
a second glass substrate having third and fourth surfaces and disposed in a spaced-apart and parallel relationship with respect to the first substrate such as to form a gap between the second and third surfaces opposing one another, the third surface having a thin-film stack thereon that includes a layer of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) carrying a layer of high-reflectance material, wherein a value of sheet resistance of said thin-film stack is less than 6.8 ohms/square, a value of absorbance of said first substrate with the thin-film stack thereon is greater than 12%, a value of reflectance of said first substrate with the thin-film stack thereon is greater than 63%, and a value of transmittance of said first substrate with the thin-film stack thereon is greater than 2.5%; and an EO medium in said gap; wherein values of reflectance, absorbance, transmittance, and color characteristics are measured in light from a D65 standard illuminant, and wherein the high-reflectance material includes a material that defines higher reflectance relative to a material, of the thin-film stack, a contribution of which to a sheet resistance of the thin-film stack is the largest. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. An electro-optic (EO) mirror element for use in a vehicular rearview assembly, said transflective EO mirror element comprising
a first glass substrate having first and second surfaces, the first surface corresponding to a front of the rearview assembly, the second surface having a layer of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thereon; -
a second glass substrate having third and fourth surfaces and disposed in spaced-apart and parallel relationship with respect to the first substrate to form a gap between the second and third surface that oppose one another, the third surface carrying a thin-film stack that includes (i) a layer of TCO having a sheet resistance of less than 6.8 ohms per square and a surface roughness of less than 200 Angstroms, and (i) a layer of high reflectance material on top of the layer of TCO, and an EO medium in the gap wherein the high-reflectance material includes a material that defines higher reflectance as compared to that of the layer of TCO, and wherein the contribution of the layer of TCO to a sheet resistance of the thin-film stack larger than that of any other layer of the thin-film stack. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 52, 54)
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47. An electro-optic (EO) mirror element for use in a vehicular rearview assembly, said mirror element comprising
a first glass substrate having first and second surfaces; -
a second glass substrate having third and fourth surfaces and disposed in spaced-apart and parallel relationship with respect to the first substrate with the third and second surfaces being opposite to each other, the second substrate carrying a thin film stack on a surface thereof, the thin-film stack including a layer of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) carrying a high-reflectance coating, wherein a value of sheet resistance of said thin-films stack is less than 6.8 Ohms per square, and wherein a transmittance value of said first substrate with the thin-film stack thereon is greater than 2.5%; and an EO medium between the second and third surfaces and, wherein values of reflectance, absorbance, and transmittance are measured in light from a D65 standard illuminant, wherein the high-reflectance material includes a material that defines higher reflectance relative to a material, of the thin-film stack, a contribution of which to a sheet resistance of the thin-film stack is the largest, wherein a value of reflectance of said mirror element in light incident onto the fourth surface towards the third surface smaller than a value of reflectance of said mirror element in light incident onto the first surface towards the second surface. - View Dependent Claims (48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63)
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Specification