Controlled randomization of electrochromic ablation patterns

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11947233-B2
Application number	US-202017135739-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 28, 2020
Priority date	Dec 30, 2019
Publication date	Apr 2, 2024
Grant date	Apr 2, 2024

Abstract

Various embodiments relate to an electrochromic (EC) device that is structured with surface contour features arranged according to a randomized pattern. For example, one or more conductive layers of an EC device may be structured with such surface ablations. In some embodiments, the randomized ablation pattern may comprise a randomized variation in one or more geometrical characteristics of a group of segments. In some examples, the geometrical characteristic(s) may include a distance characteristic, an orientation characteristic, and/or a shape characteristic, etc. According to various embodiments, the randomized ablation pattern may be configured to reduce diffraction and/or scatter of light incident on the surface ablations as compared to some other ablation patterns.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electrochromic (EC) device, comprising:
an EC film stack; and
conductive layers, wherein:
at least one conductive layer of the conductive layers comprises surface grooves arranged according to a randomized groove pattern, the randomized groove pattern comprising a randomized variation in at least one geometrical characteristic of a plurality of open-loop non-intersecting segments from a non-randomized groove pattern, wherein the at least one geometrical characteristic comprises at least:
a directional orientation of an open-loop non-intersecting segment of the plurality of open-loop non-intersecting segments, wherein the open-loop non-intersecting segment of the plurality of open-loop non-intersecting segments has a shape that is one of a symmetrical sinusoid or linear between endpoints of the open-loop non-intersecting segment; and

the randomized groove pattern is configured to reduce at least one of diffraction or scatter of light incident on the surface grooves, relative to the non-randomized groove pattern that does not include the randomized variation.

2. The EC device of claim 1 , wherein the randomized variation is digitally randomized using at least one computing device and based at least in part on one or more boundary constraint values that limit a degree of variation in the at least one geometrical characteristic.

3. The EC device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one geometrical characteristic further comprises at least one of:
a shape of a non-intersecting segment of the plurality of open-loop non-intersecting segments, or
a distance between at least two open-loop non-intersecting segments of the plurality of open-loop non-intersecting segments.

4. The EC device of claim 1 , wherein the conductive layers comprise:
a top conductive layer comprising the surface grooves arranged according to the randomized groove pattern; and
a bottom conductive layer;
wherein the top conductive layer and the bottom conductive layer are located on opposite sides of the EC film stack.

5. The EC device of claim 4 , wherein:
the randomized ablation pattern is a first randomized groove pattern; and
the bottom conductive layer comprises surface grooves arranged according to a second randomized groove pattern that is different than the first randomized groove pattern.

6. The EC device of claim 1 , wherein the conductive layers comprise:
a top conductive layer comprising a first set of surface grooves arranged according to the randomized groove pattern; and
a bottom conductive layer comprising a second set of surface grooves arranged according to the randomized groove pattern;
wherein the top conductive layer and the bottom conductive layer are located on opposite sides of the EC film stack.

7. The EC device of claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one conductive layer comprises:
a conductive layer comprising a surface of indium tin oxide (ITO); and
the surface grooves are defined by portions of the ITO at which material has been removed via laser ablation.

8. An apparatus, comprising:
a substrate; and
an electrochromic (EC) device coupled to the substrate, the EC device comprising:
an EC film stack; and
conductive layers, wherein:
at least one conductive layer of the conductive layers comprises surface contour features arranged according to a randomized surface contour feature pattern, the randomized surface contour feature pattern comprising a randomized variation in at least one geometrical characteristic of a plurality of non-intersecting segments from a non-randomized surface contour feature pattern, wherein the at least one geometrical characteristic comprises at least:
a directional orientation of a non-intersecting segment of the plurality of non-intersecting segments, wherein the non-intersecting segment of the plurality of non-intersecting segments has a shape that is one of a symmetrical sinusoid or linear between endpoints of the non-intersecting segment; and

the randomized surface contour feature pattern is configured to reduce at least one of diffraction or scatter of light incident on the surface contour features, relative to the non-randomized surface contour feature pattern that does not include the randomized variation.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein:
the surface contour features comprise surface grooves;
the randomized surface contour feature pattern is a randomized groove pattern; and
the non-randomized surface contour feature pattern is a non-randomized groove pattern.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein:
the plurality of segments comprises open-loop segments; and
the at least one geometrical characteristic further comprises a shape of a non-intersecting segment of the plurality of non-intersecting segments.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the conductive layers comprise:
a top conductive layer comprising the surface grooves arranged according to the randomized groove pattern; and
a bottom conductive layer that does not have surface groove.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein, based at least in part on the surface grooves, the top conductive layer comprises:
a first region having a first sheet resistance; and
a second region having a second sheet resistance that is different than the first sheet resistance.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the randomized groove pattern comprises:
a first randomized variation of a first geometrical characteristic; and
a second randomized variation of a second geometrical characteristic that is different than the first geometrical characteristic;
wherein the first randomized variation comprises a different degree of variation than the second randomized variation.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the substrate is a glass substrate.

15. A method of manufacturing the electrochromic (EC) device of claim 8 , the method comprising:
altering, via at least one of subtractive manufacturing or additive manufacturing, a surface contour of the at least one conductive layer of the EC device, so as to implement a local modification to one or more properties of the EC device, wherein the altering produces an altered surface contour comprising features arranged according to the randomized pattern.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
transforming the non-randomized pattern to the randomized pattern, wherein the transforming comprises using a computing device to digitally randomize the variation in the at least one geometrical characteristic of the plurality of non-intersecting segments.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the altering comprises:
laser ablating a surface of the at least one conductive layer to form open-loop surface grooves arranged according to the randomized pattern.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein:
the altering comprises:
laser ablating a surface of a top conductive layer of the EC device to form surface grooves arranged according to the randomized pattern;
wherein no surface grooves are formed on a bottom conductive layer of the EC device; and
the top conductive layer and the bottom conductive layer are located on opposite sides of an EC film stack of the EC device.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein:
the randomized pattern is a first randomized groove pattern;
the altering comprises:
laser ablating a surface of a top conductive layer of the EC device to form surface grooves arranged according to the first randomized ablation pattern;

the method further comprises:
laser ablating a surface of a bottom conductive layer of the EC dev

Assignees

• Sage Electrochromics Inc

Inventors

• Treml Benjamin
• Giron Jean-Christophe
• Wang Yigang
• Newcomb Robert

Classifications

• G02F1/155 Primary

  Electrodes · CPC title

• G02F1/1533

  structural features not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• B23K26/355

  Texturing · CPC title

• B23K26/362

  Laser etching · CPC title