Inorganic oxide articles with thin, durable anti-reflective structures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11567237-B2
Application number	US-201916541835-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 15, 2019
Priority date	Aug 17, 2018
Publication date	Jan 31, 2023
Grant date	Jan 31, 2023

Abstract

An article that includes: an inorganic oxide substrate having opposing major surfaces; and an optical film structure disposed on a first major surface of the substrate, the optical film structure comprising one or more of a silicon-containing oxide, a silicon-containing nitride and a silicon-containing oxynitride and a physical thickness from about 50 nm to less than 500 nm. The article exhibits a hardness of 8 GPa or greater measured at an indentation depth of about 100 nm or a maximum hardness of 9 GPa or greater measured over an indentation depth range from about 100 nm to about 500 nm, the hardness and the maximum hardness measured by a Berkovich Indenter Hardness Test. Further, the article exhibits a single-side photopic average reflectance that is less than 1%.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An article comprising:
an inorganic oxide substrate comprising opposing major surfaces; and
an optical film structure disposed on a first major surface of the inorganic oxide substrate, the optical film structure comprising a physical thickness from about 50 nm to less than 500 nm, a plurality of alternating high refractive index and low refractive index layers with a first low refractive index layer in direct contact with the first major surface, a capping low refractive index layer, and a high refractive index layer adjacent to the capping low refractive index layer,
wherein the high refractive index layer adjacent to the capping low refractive index layer has an optical thickness from about 45 nm to about 450 nm, and the capping low refractive index layer has a physical thickness of 100 nm or less,
wherein each low refractive index layer comprises a silicon-containing oxide and each high refractive index layer comprises Si 3 N 4 , SiN x or SiO x N y , and
further wherein the article exhibits a hardness of from about 8 GPa to about 16 GPa measured at an indentation depth of about 100 nm or a maximum hardness of from about 9 GPa to about 16 GPa measured over an indentation depth range from about 100 nm to about 300 nm, the hardness and the maximum hardness measured by a Berkovich Indenter Hardness Test.

2. The article of claim 1 , wherein the inorganic oxide substrate comprises a glass ceramic or a glass selected from the group consisting of soda lime glass, alkali aluminosilicate glass, alkali-containing borosilicate glass, and alkali aluminoborosilicate glass.

3. The article of claim 1 , further comprising any one or more of an easy-to-clean coating, a diamond-like coating, and a scratch resistant coating, disposed on the optical film structure.

4. The article of claim 1 , wherein the optical film structure comprises a physical thickness from about 50 nm to about 350 nm.

5. The article of claim 1 , wherein the physical thickness of the optical film structure is from about 50 nm to less than 325 nm, wherein a combined physical thickness of the high refractive index layers is 30% or greater than the physical thickness of the optical film structure.

6. The article of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of alternating high refractive index and low refractive index layers is four (4) layers or more, wherein a combined physical thickness of the high refractive index layers is from about 30% to 55% of the physical thickness of the optical film structure.

7. The article of claim 1 , wherein the article exhibits a single-side photopic average light reflectance that is less than 2%.

8. The article of claim 1 , wherein the article exhibits a single-side average light reflectance that is less than 2% over an optical wavelength regime in a range from about 400 nm to about 800 nm.

9. The article of claim 1 , wherein the high refractive index layer adjacent to the capping low refractive index layer has a physical thickness from 60 nm to about 230 nm.

10. The article of claim 9 , wherein the optical film structure comprises less than, or more than, seven (7) high and low refractive index layers in total.

11. A consumer electronic product, comprising:
a housing comprising a front surface, a back surface and side surfaces;
electrical components at least partially within the housing, the electrical components comprising a controller, a memory, and a display, the display at or adjacent to the front surface of the housing; and
a cover substrate disposed over the display,
wherein at least one of a portion of the housing or the cover substrate comprises the article of claim 1 .

12. An article comprising:
an inorganic oxide substrate comprising opposing major surfaces; and
an optical film structure disposed on a first major surface of the inorganic oxide substrate, the optical film structure comprising a physical thickness from about 80 nm to less than 500 nm, a plurality of alternating high refractive index and low refractive index layers with a first low refractive index layer in direct contact with the first major surface, a capping low refractive index layer, and a high refractive index layer adjacent to the capping low refractive index layer,
wherein the high refractive index layer adjacent to the capping low refractive index layer has an optical thickness from about 45 nm to about 450 nm, and the capping low refractive index layer has a physical thickness of 80 nm or more,
wherein each low refractive index layer comprises a silicon-containing oxide and each high refractive index layer comprises Si 3 N 4 , SiN X or SiO x N y , and
further wherein the article exhibits a hardness of from about 8 GPa to about 16 GPa measured at an indentation depth of about 100 nm or a maximum hardness of from about 9 GPa to about 16 GPa measured over an indentation depth range from about 100 nm to about 300 nm, the hardness and the maximum hardness measured by a Berkovich Indenter Hardness Test.

13. The article of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of alternating high refractive index and low refractive index layers is four (4) layers or more, wherein a combined physical thickness of the high refractive index layers is from about 30% to 55% of the physical thickness of the optical film structure.

14. The article of claim 12 , wherein the physical thickness of the optical film structure is from about 50 nm to less than 325 nm, wherein a combined physical thickness of the high refractive index layers is 30% or greater than the physical thickness of the optical film structure.

15. The article of claim 12 , wherein the optical film structure comprises a physical thickness from about 80 nm to about 350 nm.

16. The article of claim 12 , wherein the article exhibits a single-side photopic average light reflectance that is less than 2%.

17. The article of claim 12 , wherein the inorganic oxide substrate comprises a glass ceramic or a glass selected from the group consisting of soda lime glass, alkali aluminosilicate glass, alkali-containing borosilicate glass, and alkali aluminoborosilicate glass.

18. The article of claim 12 , wherein the high refractive index layer adjacent to the capping low refractive index layer has a physical thickness from 60 nm to about 230 nm.

19. The article of claim 18 , wherein the optical film structure comprises less than, or more than, seven (7) high and low refractive index layers in total.

20. A consumer electronic product, comprising:
a housing comprising a front surface, a back surface and side surfaces;
electrical components at least partially within the housing, the electrical components comprising a controller, a memory, and a display, the display at or adjacent to the front surface of the housing; and
a cover substrate disposed over the display,
wherein at least one of a portion of the housing or the cover substrate comprises the article of claim 12 .

21. An article comprising:
an inorganic oxide substrate comprising opposing major surfaces; and
an optical film structure disposed on a first major surface of the inorganic oxide substrate, the optical film structure comprising a physical thickness from about 80 nm to less than 500 nm, a plurality of alternating high refractive index and low refractive index layers with a first low refractive index layer in direct contact with the first major surface of the substrate, a capping low refractive index layer, and a high refractive index layer adjacent to the capping low refractive index layer,
wherein each low refractive i

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Hart Shandon Dee
• Koch Iii Karl William
• Lin Lin
• Price James Joseph
• Mayolet Alexandre Michel
• Kosik Williams Carlo Anthony

Classifications

• C03C17/3435 Primary

  comprising a nitride, oxynitride, boronitride or carbonitride · CPC title

• C03C2218/155

  by reactive sputtering · CPC title

• G02B1/115 Primary

  Multilayers · CPC title

• C03C2217/78

  Coatings specially designed to be durable, e.g. scratch-resistant · CPC title

• C03C2217/734

  comprising an alternation of high and low refractive indexes · CPC title