The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 30, 1996
Filed:
Sep. 02, 1994
Michael C Cates, Del Mar, CA (US);
Richard R Hamm, San Diego, CA (US);
Edmond Chu, San Diego, CA (US);
Maxwell Laboratories, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and system for improving the capability of a surface of an organic structure to bond with another material includes irradiating a target area of the surface of a structure with pulsed, incoherent optical energy having wavelength components which range from 160-5000 nanometers at an intensity sufficient to photodecompose any adventitious organic substances on the surface and to photodecompose a thin layer of molecular bonds forming the surface of the structure; and exposing the target area of the surface to ionized gas that chemically reacts with the target area of the surface to increase the surface free energy of the surface. A similar method and system may also be employed to improve the bondability of a metallic surface by first precleaning the metallic surface to dislodge any inorganic substances from the surface; and second irradiating a target area of the surface with pulsed, incoherent optical energy having wavelength components in the range of 160-5000 nanometers at an intensity sufficient to photodecompose any organic substances present on the surface.