Flex Products, Inc.

Optical Coating Laboratory, Inc.

Jds Uniphase Corporation

Christopher W Lantman

Richard Alan Bradley, Jr

Matthew R Witzman

Richard L Bonkowski

Nancy Lee Yamasaki

Eric R Cox

Roger Winston Phillips

Paul G Coombs

Thomas A Mayer

Jaroslaw Zieba

Bryant P Hichwa

Ludvik Martinu

Stacey A Yamanaka

Jolanta E Klemberg-Sapieha

Interference pigment flakes and foils are provided which have luminescent and color-shifting properties. The pigment flakes can have a symmetrical coating structure on opposing sides of a core layer, can have an asymmetrical coating structure with all of the layers on one side of the core layer, or can be formed with encapsulating coatings around the core layer. The coating structure of the flakes and foils includes a core layer, a dielectric layer overlying the core layer, and an absorber layer overlying the dielectric layer. A luminescent material is incorporated into the flakes or foils as a separate layer or as at least part of one or more of the other layers. The pigment flakes and foils exhibit a discrete color shift so as to have a first color at a first angle of incident light or viewing and a second color different from the first color at a second angle of incident light or viewing. The pigment flakes can be interspersed into liquid media such as paints or inks to produce colorant materials for subsequent application to objects or papers. The foils can be laminated to various objects or can be formed on a carrier substrate.

Luminescent pigments and foils with color-shifting properties

A linear aperture deposition apparatus and process are provided for coating substrates with sublimed or evaporated coating materials. The apparatus and process are particularly suited for producing flexible films having an optical interference coating with a very high surface thickness uniformity and which is substantially free of defects from particulate ejection of a source material. The apparatus includes a source box containing a source material, a heating element to sublime or evaporate the source material, and a chimney to direct the source material vapor from the source box to a substrate. A flow restricting baffle having a plurality of holes is positioned between the source material and the substrate to confine and direct the vapor flow, and an optional floating baffle is positioned on the surface of the source material to further restrict the vapor flow, thereby substantially eliminating source material spatter.

Linear aperture deposition apparatus and coating process

A security system includes a security article and a corresponding detector. The security article comprises a substrate layer having a top surface and a bottom surface. The substrate layer is composed of an electrically nonconductive material. Deposited on the top surface of the substrate layer is a conductive thin film coating having a predetermined electrical resistance between two spaced apart points. In one embodiment, the conductive thin film coating is comprised of a transparent conductive compound and has a thickness in a range between about 7 nanometers to about 700 nanometers. Printing can be positioned either on top of the substrate layer or on top of the thin film coating. The detector corresponds to the security article and has a light source and a pair of spaced apart probes. The detector contains electrical circuitry configured to energize the light source when an electrical resistance is produced between the probes that corresponds to the predetermined electrical resistance for the security article.

Conductive security article with detector apparatus

A security article comprises a substrate layer having a top surface and a bottom surface. The substrate layer is composed of an electrically nonconductive material. Deposited on the top surface of the substrate layer is a conductive thin film coating having a predetermined electrical resistance between two spaced apart points. In one embodiment, the conductive thin film coating is composed of a transparent conductive compound and has a thickness in a range between about 7 nanometers to about 700 nanometers. Printing can be positioned either on top of the substrate layer or on top of the thin film coating. An adhesive can be applied on the bottom surface of the substrate layer.

Conductive security article and method of manufacture

The present invention involves in situ laser patterning of thin-film layers during sequential deposition of the different layers. The layers may be applied using any known method of film deposition. The method of the present invention involves laser ablation to remove unwanted portions of the coating layers, including color filter materials, that have been sequentially deposited onto substantially the entire surface of a substrate. By controlling the depth of the laser ablation removal of the deposited films, it is possible to remove any portion of a film or layers of films or coatings that have been sequentially coated onto the surface of the substrate and to thereby control the depth and location of color filter materials coated upon the substrate. This patterning process can be employed in conjunction with any film deposition technique known in the art, including vacuum, wet chemical or dry processing deposition techniques, but is preferred with vacuum deposition. Because both the coating and the selective removal of the coatings by laser ablation can be performed without breaking vacuum, in the case of vacuum deposition, the process greatly simplifies and increases the rate of production of coated arrays, including color filter arrays. In addition, this method allows for the construction of complex pattern, thin film structures without the need for masking encountered with other patterning processes.

In-situ laser patterning of thin film layers during sequential depositing

The present invention is directed to methods and apparatus for depositing optical thin film coatings simultaneously onto both sides of at least one substrate in a dual-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition vacuum reaction chamber utilizing microwave and radio frequency energies. The substrate can be a continuous substrate, such as a flexible polymer web, or it can be one or more discrete substrates, such as rigid plastic, glass, or glass/polymer composite substrates. The substrate can be processed in a stationary or an in-line processing mode. In addition, the coatings deposited simultaneously onto both sides of the substrate can be identical, i.e. symmetrical, or different, i.e., non-symmetrical. The plasma attributes and reaction conditions on either side of the substrate can be independently controlled to provide either identical or different coating compositions and properties on the two sides of the substrate. Multiple plasmas can also be generated, in either an overlapping or isolated manner, to form multiple independently-controlled CVD reaction zones for simultaneous deposition of either identical or different coatings onto the sides of the substrate within the different zones.

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Santa Rosa, CA, United States of America

Christopher W Lantman