Heat treatable coated article with substoichiometric zirconium oxide based layer and corresponding method
AssigneeGuardian Glass, LLC
InventorsXuequn Hu, Gregory T. Gaudet
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A layer of or including substoichiometric zirconium oxide is sputter deposited on a glass substrate via a substoichiometric zirconium oxide inclusive ceramic sputtering target of or including ZrOx. The coated article, with the substoichiometric ZrOx inclusive layer on the glass substrate, is then heat treated (e.g., thermally tempered) in an atmosphere including oxygen, which causes the substoichiometric ZrOx inclusive layer to transform into a scratch resistant layer of or including stoichiometric or substantially stoichiometric zirconium oxide (e.g., ZrO2), and causes the visible transmission of the coated article to significant increase.
Claims31
A method of making a heat treated coated article, the method comprising:
- having a coated article including a coating on a glass substrate, the coating comprising a layer comprising substoichiometric zirconium oxide ZrOx that directly contacts the glass substrate, where “x” is from 1.50 to 1.97;
- and
- heat treating the coated article, including the glass substrate with the layer comprising substoichiometric zirconium oxide ZrOx thereon, so that the heat treating causes visible transmission (Tvis) of the coated article to increase by at least 4% and causes the layer comprising substoichiometric zirconium oxide ZrOx to transform into a layer comprising substantially stoichiometric ZrOx where “x” is from 1.98 to 2.05, and wherein the heat treated coated article comprising the glass substrate and the layer comprising substantially stoichiometric ZrOx has a haze value of no greater than 0.3%.
A method of making a heat treated coated article, the method comprising:
- having a coated article including a coating on a glass substrate, the coating comprising a layer comprising substoichiometric zirconium oxide ZrOx that directly contacts the glass substrate, where “x” is from 1.50 to 1.97;
- heat treating the coated article, including the glass substrate with the layer comprising substoichiometric zirconium oxide ZrOx thereon, at temperature(s) of at least 580 degrees C. so that the heat treating causes visible transmission (Tvis) of the coated article to increase by at least 4% and causes the layer comprising substoichiometric zirconium oxide ZrOx to transform into a layer comprising substantially stoichiometric ZrOx where “x” is from 1.98 to 2.05, wherein after the heat treating the layer comprising substantially stoichiometric zirconium oxide ZrOx has a refractive index (n) of at least 2.21 and the coated article has a visible transmission of at least 75%;
- and
- wherein after the heat treating the layer comprising substantially stoichiometric zirconium oxide ZrOx is an uppermost layer of the coating and is exposed to ambient atmosphere.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.