Synergeyes, Inc.

Waveguide Solutions, Inc.

Other

Ramazan Benrashid

Faramarz Farahi

Ali Dahi

Patrick Moyer

Jenny Xuan Huynh

Jerome A Legerton

William E Meyers

Hermann H Neidlinger

Joseph Collins

Paul Velasco

Ivan Sabath

Pascal Dupriez

Leilabady Pedram

A method of increasing the hydrophilicity of a polymer surface, such as a contact lens surface, includes exposing the polymer substrate to a first plasma under conditions selected to generate free radicals on the surface of the polymer substrate. The method also includes reacting an organic compound with the free radicals on the surface of the polymer substrate to thereby form an organic coating. The method further includes exposing the organic coating to a second plasma under conditions selected to oxidize the organic coating to thereby form a hydrophilic layer at the substrate surface. The hydrophilic layer can have a contact angle with respect to water that is less than about 50&#xb0;.

Surface modification of contact lenses

A hybrid contact lens includes a substantially rigid center portion and a substantially flexible skirt portion connected to the center portion. The skirt portion is formed using xerogels compatible with diluents comprising at least one selected from polylactic acid, polyglycolic acid, lactide, glycolide, a polyacetal, a cyclic acetal, a polyketal, a cyclic ketal, a polyorthoester, a cyclic orthoester, di-t-butyl-dicarbonate, tris(trimethylsilyl)amine, and 2,2,2-trifluoroacetamide. These diluents are formulated to function as a stand-in for water in the xerogel polymer, allowing the xerogel to form and bond to the rigid center portion in its fully expanded state. Upon hydration of the hybrid lens, substantially little dimensional change, and thus substantially little distortion, is obtained in the skirt portion. The diluents of the present invention further preserve the mechanical integrity of the xerogel, allowing the xerogel to be machined to final shape, improving the dimensional tolerances which can be achieved in the hybrid lens.

Hybrid contact lenses prepared with expansion controlled polymeric materials

Hybrid sol-gel materials are provided, which may be produced by the reaction of an alkyl or dialkyl substituted trialkoxysilane or dialkoxysilane reacting with a silane diol, wherein said alkyl group has from 1 to 8 carbon atoms. A process is also provided for patterning the sol-gel spin-on glass material by: a) coating a substrate with the spin-on glass material; b) exposing the coated substrate of step a) to UV illumination in a desired pattern; c) post-exposure baking the coated substrate of step b) at a temperature from 100&#xb0; C. to 120&#xb0; C. for 30 to 60 minutes; d) cooling the coated substrate of step c) to room temperature; e) removing the non-exposed areas of the coating on the coated substrate of step d); f) drying the coated substrate of step e); g) hard baking the coated substrate of step f) at a temperature from 120&#xb0; C. and 150&#xb0; C. for 1 to 3 hours.

High performance sol-gel spin-on glass materials

The present invention relates to contact lenses manufactured using a gas permeable material with improved hydrophilicity. A method for improving the hydrophilicity of the contact lens includes providing a contact lens comprising a gas permeable contact lens material and exposing the material to a treatment solution comprising a chemical agent under conditions that are effective to significantly reduce the contact angle of the contact lens for a period of at least about two months. In another embodiment, the method includes irradiating the contact lens to sterilize the contact lens material. A contact lens manufactured using this method includes a substantially rigid portion comprising a polymeric material, the polymeric material comprising a hydrophilic surface having a contact angle of about 65 degrees or less.

Methods for improving the hydrophilicity of contact lenses and contact lenses having the same

The subject invention relates to the fabrication of micro-optical structures in a glass-like transparent material using conventional photolithography processing steps. The glass-like material is a spin-on glass (SOG) material, which behaves like a negative-tone photoresist, and has high quality optical properties similar to those of glass. The present invention can take advantage of gray scale photomasks to illuminate the uncured spin-on material with various illumination intensities, thus resulting in variations in resultant film thickness of the SOG material after the chemical development step. This results in micro-optical structures that can be fabricated with the desired shapes, depending on the transmission characteristics of each region of the gray scale photomask.

Gray scale fabrication method using a spin-on glass material and integrated optical designs produced therefrom

The present invention claims a unique way to pattern an optical microstructure immediately on top of a mass produced light-emitting device, such as a light emitting diode (LED), a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) or a photo detector, for the purpose of efficient coupling of light to or from the active region of the light-emitting device. The invention addresses the need to effectively and efficiently extract light from the light-emitting optoelectronic device. Finally, the invention allows for the optical microstructure to be deposited and patterned directly over the light-emitting device contained on a suitable substrate, such as a wafer.

Growing community of inventors

Concord, NC, United States of America

Ramazan Benrashid