Electrochromic coatings–applications and manufacturing issues

Abstract

Electrochromic (EC) coatings, thin films that change their optical absorptance or reflectance as a function of injected ions (typically H+ or Li+ species), is an area of research and development that has received considerable attention from academia, industry and government laboratories. OCLI has been actively involved in the development of transmissive proton-based electrochromic devices for a number of commercial applications. In this paper, we will focus on two applications: architectural glazings and eyewear. Each provides its own set of challenges, ranging from coating on large area glass to small area curved plastic. We will review the benefits of electrochromics for those applications and report on the technological and manufacturing challenges involved. Furthermore, we will show OCLI’s recent advances in producing low temperature all-sputtered EC devices. The latter is necessary for (1) coating EC devices on temperature sensitive substrates and (2) transferring the process into a high volume in-line sputtering platform.