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:
Jan. 13, 2004
Filed:
Sep. 19, 2001
Scott M. Hartley, Clarks Summit, PA (US);
Robert A. Sallavanti, Dalton, PA (US);
Gentex Corporation, Carbondale, PA (US);
Abstract
A method for optically coupling a thermoplastic material to an outer surface layer of an organic, dielectric, optical film and the resulting optical filter. Initially, a dielectric film is selected that includes (i) repeating optical layers of at least two polymers having different refractive indexes from each other, (ii) an exterior film surface, (iii) a refractive boundary along the exterior film surface, and (iv) a delamination threshold based on total thermal energy delivered to the film. A thermoplastic material which is miscible with the exterior film surface is fused to the refractive boundary with thermal energy below the delamination threshold to form a polydisperse region having a higher optical transmission than the refractive boundary. Add-on filters in the form of hardcoat layers, anti-reflection layers, holograms, metal dielectric stacks and combinations of these may be combined with the thermoplastic-film construct.