Wire grid polarizer with silane protective coating

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11513272-B2
Application number	US-202016941021-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 28, 2020
Priority date	Apr 3, 2015
Publication date	Nov 29, 2022
Grant date	Nov 29, 2022

Abstract

A wire grid polarizer (WGP) can have a conformal-coating to protect the WGP from at least one of the following: corrosion, dust, and damage due to tensile forces in a liquid on the WGP. The conformal-coating can include a silane conformal-coating with chemical formula (1), chemical formula (2), or combinations thereof:A method of applying a conformal-coating over a WGP can include exposing the WGP to Si(R1)d(R2)e(R3)g. In the above WGP and method, X can be a bond to the ribs; each R1 can be a hydrophobic group; each R3, if any, can be any chemical element or group; d can be 1, 2, or 3, e can be 1, 2, or 3, g can be 0, 1, or 2, and d+e+g=4; R2 can be a silane-reactive-group; and each R6 can be an alkyl group, an aryl group, or combinations thereof.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wire grid polarizer (WGP) comprising:
ribs located over a surface of a transparent substrate with gaps between adjacent ribs; and
a silane conformal-coating located over the ribs, the silane conformal-coating including chemical formula (1), chemical formula (2), or combinations thereof:

where: r is a positive integer; each R 1 independently is a hydrophobic group including CF 3 (CF 2 ) n (CH 2 ) m , and n and m are integers within the boundaries of 1≤n≤4 and 1≤m≤5; each X is a bond to the ribs; and each R 3 is independently a chemical element or a group.

2. The WGP of claim 1 , wherein the silane conformal-coating is a superhydrophobic surface, capable of keeping water on a surface of the ribs in a Cassie-Baxter state.

3. The WGP of claim 1 , wherein R 3 is —OCH 3 .

4. The WGP of claim 1 , wherein R 3 is —OCOR 6 , and each R 6 is independently an alkyl group, an aryl group, or combinations thereof.

5. The WGP of claim 1 , wherein R 3 is —N(R 6 ) 2 , and each R 6 is independently an alkyl group, an aryl group, or combinations thereof.

6. The WGP of claim 1 , further comprising a silicon dioxide conformal-coating between the silane conformal-coating and the ribs.

7. The WGP of claim 6 , wherein the silicon dioxide conformal-coating has a thickness of between 0.1 nanometers and 5 nanometers.

8. The WGP of claim 6 , wherein a minimum thickness of the silicon dioxide conformal-coating is at least 0.5 nanometers.

9. The WGP of claim 6 , wherein a maximum thickness across the entire silicon dioxide conformal-coating is less than 10 nanometers.

10. A wire grid polarizer (WGP) comprising:
ribs located over a surface of a transparent substrate with gaps between adjacent ribs; and
a silane conformal-coating located over the ribs, the silane conformal-coating including chemical formula (1), chemical formula (2), or combinations thereof:

where: r is a positive integer; each R 1 independently is a hydrophobic group including CF 3 (CF 2 ) n , and n is an integer within the boundaries of 1≤n≤3; each X is a bond to the ribs; and each R 3 is independently a chemical element or a group.

11. The WGP of claim 10 , wherein each R 1 is independently CF 3 (CF 2 ) n (CH 2 ) m , and m is an integer within the boundaries of 1≤m≤5.

12. The WGP of claim 10 , wherein the silane conformal-coating is a superhydrophobic surface, capable of keeping water on a surface of the ribs in a Cassie-Baxter state.

13. The WGP of claim 10 , wherein each R 3 is —OCH 3 , —OCOR 6 , and —N(R 6 ) 2 , and each R 6 is independently an alkyl group, an aryl group, or combinations thereof.

14. The WGP of claim 10 , further comprising:
a silicon dioxide conformal-coating between the silane conformal-coating and the ribs; and
across the entire the silicon dioxide conformal-coating, the silicon dioxide conformal-coating has a minimum thickness of at least 0.5 nanometers and a maximum thickness of less than 10 nanometers.

15. A method of making a wire grid polarizer (WGP) with a protective coating, the method comprising:
providing a WGP with ribs located over a surface of a transparent substrate;
exposing the WGP to a silane chemical by vapor-deposition, the silane chemical including Si(R 1 ) d (R 2 ) e (R 3 ) g where: d is 1, 2, or 3, e is 1, 2, or 3, g is 0, 1, or 2, and d+e+g=4; each R 1 is independently a hydrophobic group including CF 3 (CF 2 ) n and n is an integer within the boundaries of 1≤n≤4; R 2 is a silane-reactive-group; each silane-reactive-group is independently selected from: —OR 6 , —OCOR 6 , and —N(R 6 ) 2 ; each R 6 is independently an alkyl group, an aryl group, or combinations thereof; and each R 3 , if any, is independently any chemical element or group.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein n is an integer within the boundaries of 1≤n≤3.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein each R 1 is independently CF 3 (CF 2 ) n (CH 2 ) m , and m is an integer within the boundaries of 1≤m≤5.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the silane-reactive-group is —OCH 3 .

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the silane-reactive-group is —OCOR 6 .

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the silane-reactive-group is —N(R 6 ) 2 .

Assignees

• Moxtek Inc

Inventors

• Nielson Stew
• Linford Matt
• Diwan Anubhav
• George Matthew C

Classifications

• C23C16/308

  Oxynitrides · CPC title

• C23C16/45555

  applied in non-semiconductor technology · CPC title

• C09D183/02

  Polysilicates · CPC title

• G02B1/14

  Protective coatings, e.g. hard coatings · CPC title

• C23C14/0635

  Carbides · CPC title