US 10,011,524 B2 · Coated article with sequentially activated low-E coating, and/or method of making the same

Abstract

Certain example embodiments relate to coated articles with sequentially activated low-E coatings, and/or methods of making the same. In certain example embodiments, one or more infrared reflecting layers is/are activated via a non-equilibrium preconditioning activation that uses photons with specific frequencies/frequency ranges, followed by a more equilibrium thermal activation. The preconditioning activation aids in rearranging the silver atoms to energetically favorable positions, while helping to avoid their unwanted agglomeration. The more equilibrium thermal stage of activation aids in aligning the chemical potentials of the layers of the stack and in further densification of the preconditioned silver layer. Doing so, in turn, helps to reduce the likelihood of stresses building-up in the coating, the formation of point and dimensional defects, other unwanted efficiency-reducing phenomena, and/or the like. Advantageously, emissivity can be lowered to a value lower than that achievable using conventional thermal, flash, and laser scanning, approaches alone.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A method of making a coated article including a multilayer thin film coating supported by a glass substrate, the method comprising:

sputter-depositing a first silver-based layer, directly or indirectly, on the glass substrate;
sputter-depositing at least one dielectric layer, directly or indirectly, on the first silver-based layer;
sputter-depositing a second silver-based layer, directly or indirectly, on the at least one dielectric layer;
adjusting resistivity levels of the first and second silver-based layers through flash light source exposure in at least one wavelength range and subsequently performing thermal activation;
and
wherein the adjusting comprises preconditioning the silver based layers via flash light source exposure in at least first and second different wavelength ranges, the first wavelength range preferentially transmitting energy to the first silver based layer and the second wavelength range preferentially transmitting energy to the second silver based layer, and thereafter performing thermal activation comprising a thermal treatment that is performed after all of the silver based layers have been deposited, directly or indirectly, on the glass substrate.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Coated article with sequentially activated low-E coating, and/or method of making the same

Life of this patent

Coated article with sequentially activated low-E coating, and/or method of making the same

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims11