Electrically heatable pane with switch region

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10638549-B2
Application number	US-201515302972-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 21, 2015
Priority date	Apr 24, 2014
Publication date	Apr 28, 2020
Grant date	Apr 28, 2020

Abstract

An electrically heatable pane with a switch region is presented. The pane has a transparent substrate, with at least one transparent electrically conductive layer that is, at least partially, arranged on a surface of the pane. At least one separating line electrically divides the layer into a heating region and a switch region. At least two busbars are provided for connection to a voltage source. The busbars being connected to the heating region, form a current path between the busbars. A heating current can therefore flow through the current path. Furthermore, the switch region has at least one contact region, a feed line region, and a connection region, where the connection region can be connected to sensor electronics.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electrically heatable pane with a switch region, comprising:
a transparent substrate with a surface,
at least one transparent and electrically conductive layer arranged on at least a part of the surface,
at least one separating line that electrically divides the electrically conductive layer into a heating region and a switch region, and
at least two busbars provided for connection to a voltage source that are connected to the heating region to form a current path for a heating current between the busbars,
wherein:
the switch region comprises at least one contact region, a feed line region, and a connection region,
the at least one contact region, the feed line region, and the connection region are contiguous regions of the electrically conductive layer,
the feed line region electrically connects the at least one contact region to the connection region,
the connection region is adapted to be electrically connected to sensor electronics, and an area of the contact region is from 1 cm 2 to 200 cm 2 and/or a width of the at least one separating line is from 30 μm to 200 μm, and
at least one additional separating line electrically divides the electrically conductive layer into a surrounding region that completely surrounds the switch region, and wherein the surrounding region has an additional connection region adapted to be connected to the sensor electronics.

2. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein the feed line region has a length of 1 cm to 70 cm, and has a width of 0.5 mm to 10 mm.

3. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein an angle a between the current path and a longitudinal direction of the feed line region is from 0° to 45°.

4. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein the connection region is arranged according to one of:
a) at an edge of the pane, and b) adjacent to one of the busbars.

5. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein the surrounding region has the same or a similar shape as the switch region and is implemented in a shape comprising one of: a) a circle, b) an ellipse, c) a drop, and d) a strip with rounded corners.

6. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein the surface of the substrate is connected to a cover pane via a thermoplastic intermediate layer in a planar manner.

7. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the substrate and the cover pane contains one or a mixture of: a) glass, and b) polymers.

8. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein the electrically conductive layer has a sheet resistance of 0.4 ohm/square to 10 ohm/square.

9. A pane arrangement comprising:
the electrically heatable pane according to claim 6 , and
sensor electronics electrically connected to the connection region of the electrically heatable pane,
wherein sensitivity of the sensor electronics is selected so as to output:
i) a first switching signal when the at least one contact region of the electrically heatable pane is touched on the substrate by a human finger, and
ii) no switching signal or a second switching signal, different from the first switching signal, when the at least one contact region is touched on the cover pane of the electrically heatable pane.

10. A pane arrangement comprising:
the electrically heatable pane according to claim 6 , and
sensor electronics electrically connected to the connection region of the electrically heatable pane,
wherein sensitivity of the sensor electronics is selected so as to output:
i) a first switching signal when the at least one contact region is touched on at least one of the substrate and the cover pane by human finger, and
ii) no switching signal or a second switching signal, different from the first switching signal, when the feed line region is touched on the substrate and/or the cover pane,

wherein the connection region of the electrically heatable pane is connected to a flat conductor.

11. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein the feed line region has a length of 1 cm to 8 cm and has a width of 0.5 mm to 2 mm.

12. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 2 , wherein the feed line region has a shape of a rectangle, a strip, or a line.

13. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein an angle a between the current path and a longitudinal direction of the feed line region is from 0° to 20°.

14. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein the feed line region has a length and a width, and wherein a ratio of the length to the width is less than or equal to 1:700.

15. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 4 , wherein a distance from the connection region to one of a) and b) is less than, or equal to, 10 cm.

16. The electrically heatable pane according to one of claim 1 , wherein the contact region has a shape according to one of: a) a circle, b) an ellipse, c) a drop, and d) rounded corners.

17. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein a width of the at least one separating line is from 70 μm to 140 μm.

18. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 6 , wherein the thermoplastic intermediate layer has a permittivity number from 2 to 4.

19. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 7 ,
wherein a) comprises one or more of: a1) flat glass, a2) float glass, a3) quartz glass, a4) borosilicate glass, and a5) soda lime glass, and
wherein b) comprises one or more of: b1) polyethylene, b2) polypropylene, b3) polycarbonate, and b4) polymethyl methacrylate.

20. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , wherein the electrically conductive layer has a sheet resistance of 0.5 ohm/square to 1 ohm/square.

21. The electrically heatable pane according to claim 2 , wherein the electrically conductive layer comprises of one more of: a) silver (Ag), b) indium tin oxide (ITO), c) fluorine-doped tin oxide (SnO2:F), and d) aluminumdoped zinc oxide (ZnO:AI).

22. A pane arrangement comprising the electrically heatable pane according to claim 10 , wherein the connection region of the electrically heatable pane is connected to a flat conductor, and wherein the flat conductor is guided out of the electrically heatable pane.

23. A method for producing the electrically heatable pane according to claim 1 , the method comprising:
applying a transparent electrically conductive layer on a surface of a transparent substrate;
forming at least one separating line that electrically divides the transparent electrically conductive layer into at least one heating region and one switch region; and
connecting at least two busbars to the transparent electrically conductive layer for connection to a voltage source, thereby forming a current path for a heating current between the at least two busbars.

Assignees

• Saint Gobain

Inventors

• Weber Patrick
• Esser Hans-Georg
• Bondkowski Jens

Classifications

• H05B1/0236 Primary

  for vehicles · CPC title

• H05B2203/011

  Heaters using laterally extending conductive material as connecting means · CPC title

• B32B17/10807

  Making laminated safety glass or glazing; Apparatus therefor · CPC title

• H05B3/06

  Heater elements structurally combined with coupling elements or holders · CPC title

• H05B2203/017

  Manufacturing methods or apparatus for heaters · CPC title