US 2018/0312429 A1 · COATED ARTICLE WITH SEQUENTIALLY ACTIVATED LOW-E COATINGS, 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.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A method of making a coated article including a multilayer thin film low-emissivity (low-E) coating supported by a glass substrate, the method comprising:

forming the low-E coating on the substrate, the low-E coating including at least first and second infrared (IR) reflecting layers comprising silver, each of the first and second IR reflecting layers being sandwiched between one or more dielectric layers, the first IR reflecting layer being farther from the substrate than the second IR reflecting layer;
and
activating each of the IR reflecting layers using a two-stage treatment,
the first stage in the treatment preconditioning the IR reflecting layers via flash light source exposure in at least first and second wavelength ranges, the first wavelength range preferentially transmitting energy to the first IR reflecting layer and the second wavelength range preferentially transmitting energy to the second IR reflecting layer, and
the second stage in the treatment being a thermal treatment that is performed after all of the IR reflecting layers have been deposited, directly or indirectly, on the substrate, the second stage following the first stage.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

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

Life of this patent

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

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23