Saint-gobain Ceramics & Plastics, Inc.

Christopher D Jones

John Walter Locher

Matthias Mandelartz

Vincent Pluen

Jeffrey B Rioux

Eric S Carlson

Kathleen R Farrell

Brian C Furchner

Matthew A Simpson

Christopher Arcona

Pierre Chaussade

Brahmanandam V Tanikella

Steven Anthony Zanella

Fery Pranadi

Marc Ouellette

Jan Jozef Buzniak

Vitali Tatartchenko

Abbie M Jennings

David I Gindhart

Guilford L Mack, Iii

Joseph M Collins

John W Locher

The present disclosure is directed to an apparatus and method for growing a sapphire sheet via edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) including an angled heat shield with respect to the a side surface of a die tip. The present disclosure is further directed to an sapphire sheets and batches of such sheets having features such as a particular maximum low spot thickness.

Sapphire sheets and apparatus and method for producing sapphire sheets with angled heat shields

A method and apparatus for the production of C-plane single crystal sapphire is disclosed. The method and apparatus may use edge defined film-fed growth techniques for the production of single crystal material exhibiting low polycrystallinity and/or low dislocation density.

C-plane sapphire method and apparatus

A non-planar ceramic composite and method of making are provided. The non-planar ceramic composite is transparent serves as transparent armor. In a non-limiting embodiment, the non-planar composite provides adequate protection from projectiles while exhibiting large surface areas and relatively low areal densities.

Transparent ceramic composite

A ceramic composite and method of making are provided. The ceramic composite is transparent and serves as transparent armor. The composite provides adequate protection from projectiles while exhibiting large surface areas and relatively low areal densities.

A scanner window and method of making a scanner window are provided. The window may include three layers. The layers may be a ceramic layer such as sapphire, a glass backing, and an adhesive layer comprising a polymer sheet. The window may be formed by stacking the components together and applying heat and pressure to result in adhesion of the ceramic layer to the glass layer. Additional features of the window may include improved strength, clarity and shatter resistance.

Optical scanning window

A method of changing the crystallographic orientation of a single crystal body is disclosed that includes the steps of characterizing a crystallographic orientation of the single crystal body and calculating a misorientation angle between a select crystallographic direction of the single crystal body and a projection of the crystallographic direction along a plane of a first exterior major surface of the single crystal body. The method further includes removing material from at least a portion of the first exterior major surface to change the misorientation angle.

Methods of crystallographically reorienting single crystal bodies

A ceramic composite and method of making are provided. The ceramic composite may be transparent and may serve as transparent armor. The ceramic portion of the composite may be single crystal sapphire. The composite may provide adequate protection from projectiles while exhibiting large surface areas and relatively low areal densities.

Transparent ceramic composite armor

An improved technique that reduces the potential for trapped impurities and/or ensuring desired stoichiometry of a grown crystal. Improved contaminant removal is obtained by bubbling a scavenger gas, such as fluorine gas or hydrogen fluoride gas, through a melt of alkaline- or alkali-earth halides, to improve the purity of the melt by removing more volatile metal halides and oxygen contained within the melt. By reacting after the raw material has melted, any oxygen or metal impurities trapped in the raw material is free to react with the scavenger. A desired stoichiometry is achieved as the alkaline- or alkali-earth metals react with the halide in the scavenger gas. Decreasing the amount of impurities in the melt, and using a desired stoichiometeric melt, improves the radiation hardness and transmission properties of resulting ingot grown from the purified raw material. Additionally, this method may decrease the amount of time needed for outgassing. The method may also be used to form a high purity pre-melt, which in turn may be used to grow an ingot with higher purity.

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Amherst, NH, United States of America

Christopher D Jones