Monsanto Company

Diamonex, Incorporated

Brian Kenneth Daniels

Rudolph Hugo Petrmichl

Fred M Kimock

Bradley J Knapp

Leonard Joseph Mahoney

Norman Donald Galvin

Ray Hays Venable

Florian Joseph Fodor

An abrasion-resistant dielectric composite product is described comprising a substrate and an abrasion wear resistant coating material comprising carbon, hydrogen, silicon, and oxygen and a dielectric material. An improved method is provided for the deposition of highly durable and abrasion-resistant multilayer dielectric antireflective coatings and reflective colored mirror coatings onto plastic lenses such as ophthalmic lenses, safety lenses, sunglass lenses, and sports optics. An adhesion-enhancing polymer layer may be deposited onto the plastic substrate prior to deposition of the abrasion-resistant first coating layer. The multilayer dielectric coating structure consists of a transparent, highly abrasion-resistant first coating, and a second dielectric coating composed of at least one layer of dielectric material. The abrasion-resistant first coating layer is deposited by ion-assisted plasma deposition from mixtures of organosiloxane or organosilazane precursor gases and oxygen, and has the properties of Nanoindentation hardness in the range of about 2 GPa to about 5 GPa, a strain to microcracking greater than about 1.5% and less than about 3.5%, a transparency greater than 85% throughout the visible spectrum, and an abrasion resistance greater than or equal to the abrasion resistance of glass. The preferred method for deposition of the abrasion-resistant first coating layer is plasma ion beam deposition using an organosiloxane precursor gas and oxygen. Optimum abrasion-resistance is obtained when the first coating layer thickness is in the range of about 5 microns to about 20 microns. The thickness, refractive index, and number of the dielectric layers in the second coating are chosen to produce the desired optical effects of either antireflection, or reflected color. Optimum environmental durability and abrasion-resistance is obtained by producing highly dense dielectric coatings by ion beam assisted electron beam evaporation, magnetron sputtering, ion beam assisted magnetron sputtering, ion beam sputtering, and ion-assisted plasma deposition, including plasma ion beam deposition, from precursor gases.

Highly durable and abrasion-resistant dielectric coatings for lenses

Plasma beam apparatus and method for the purpose of vacuum processing temperature sensitive materials at high discharge power and high processing rates. A gridless, closed or non-closed Hall-Current ion source is described which features a unique fluid-cooled anode with a shadowed gap through which ion source feed gases are introduced while depositing feed gases are injected into the plasma beam. The shadowed gap provides a well maintained, electrically active area at the anode surface which stays relatively free of non-conductive deposits. The anode discharge region is insulatively sealed to prevent discharges from migrating into the interior of the ion source. Thin vacuum gaps are also used between anode and non-anode components in order to preserve electrical isolation of the anode when depositing conductive coatings. The magnetic field of the Hall-Current ion source is produced by an electromagnet driven either by the discharge current or a periodically alternating current.

Gridless ion source for the vacuum processing of materials

An abrasion wear resistant coated substrate product is described comprising a substrate and an abrasion wear resistant coating material comprising carbon, hydrogen, silicon, and oxygen. The abrasion wear resistant coating material has the properties of Nanoindentation hardness in the range of about 2 to about 5 GPa and a strain to microcracking greater than about 1% and a transparency greater than 85% in the visible spectrum. The coated products of the present invention are suitable for use in optical applications such as ophthalmic lenses or laser bar code scanner windows. In the method for making the products, the substrate is first chemically cleaned to remove contaminants. In the second step, the substrate is inserted into a vacuum chamber, and the air in said chamber is evacuated. In the third step, the substrate surface is bombarded with energetic ions and/or reactive species to assist in the removal of residual hydrocarbons and surface oxides, and to activate the surface. After the substrate surface has been etched, a protective, abrasion-resistant coating is deposited by plasma or ion beam deposition. Once the chosen thickness of the coating has been achieved, the deposition process on the substrates is terminated, the vacuum chamber pressure is increased to atmospheric pressure, and the coated substrate products having improved abrasion-resistance are removed from the vacuum chamber.

Highly abrasion-resistant, flexible coatings for soft substrates

Growing community of inventors

Allentown, PA, United States of America

Brian Kenneth Daniels