Optical Coating Laboratory, Inc.

J Gordon Mathew

Bryant P Hichwa

Michael J Cumbo

Richard Alan Bradley, Jr

Nada A O'Brien

Steven P Sapers

Lindsey Brown

Steven P Bandettini

A flexible panel is provided that is easily and conformingly applied to a curved display screen of a VDU to afford, in a lightweight manner, variably adjustable contrast enhancement of the VDU while simultaneously providing a decrease in the amount of ambient light reflected from the curved display screen. The flexible panel is a glass microsheet layered, on one side thereof, with an antireflection coating and, on the other side, with an electrochromic device. The electrochrmic device allows for variable adjustment of the contrast of the VDU as a function of the voltage applied across the electrochromic device. The flexible glass microsheet dually possesses the advantages of conventional rigid glass panels, such as excellent optical performance, high durability, capability of being coated with various optical coatings under extreme temperature, pressure and chemical conditions and the additional benfeit of physical flexibility. This flexibility allows for easy application to variously sized and shaped curved VDU display screens. The electrochromic device is a six-layered structure deposited, in order from the layer adjacent the panel: a 1 quarter wavelength (QW) alumina layer; a first indium-tin-oxide (ITO) layer; a tungsten trioxide (WO.sub.3) layer; a tantalum pentoxide (Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5) layer; a nickel-oxide (NiO) layer; and a second indium-tin-oxide (ITO) layer.

Variably adjustable contrast enhancement electrochromic panel adapted

The present invention is directed to method for manufacturing electrochromic devices using laser ablation techniques. More specifically, the present invention uses laser ablation to provide a simple, noncontact method of patterning electrochromic devices to a controlled depth, to form an electrochromically active area. Furthermore, laser patterning is conducive to the formation of multiple electrochromic devices on a single substrate.

Electrochromic device manufacturing process

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Sonoma, CA, United States of America

J Gordon Mathew