Particle removal during fabrication of electrochromic devices
AssigneeView, Inc.
InventorRobert T. Rozbicki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Electrochromic devices are fabricated using a particle removal operation that reduces the occurrence of electronically conducting layers and/or electrochromically active layers from contacting layers of the opposite polarity and creating a short circuit in regions where defects form. In some embodiments, the particle removal operation is not a lithiation operation. In some embodiments, the particle removal operation is performed at an intermediate stage during the deposition of either an electrochromic layer or a counter electrode layer.
Claims36
A method of fabricating an electrochromic device, the method comprising:
- providing a substrate having a first transparent electronically conductive layer comprising a first transparent electronically conductive material;
- forming an electrochromic stack over the substrate having the first transparent electronically conductive layer, wherein forming the stack comprises:
- forming an electrochromic layer comprising an electrochromic material;
- and
- forming a counter electrode layer comprising a counter electrode material;
- forming a second transparent electronically conductive layer over the electrochromic stack, the second transparent electronically conductive layer comprising a second transparent electronically conductive material, whereby the first and second transparent electronically conductive layers sandwich the electrochromic stack;
- and
- performing a particle-removal operation to reduce the number of defects in the formed electrochromic device, wherein the particle-removal operation is performed at any time before both the electrochromic layer and the counter electrode layer are fully-formed.
An apparatus for fabricating an electrochromic device, the apparatus comprising:
- (a) an integrated deposition system for forming an electrochromic stack on a substrate, the system comprising:
- (i) a first deposition station containing a first target comprising a first material for depositing a layer of an electrochromic material on a substrate when the substrate is positioned in the first deposition station;
- (ii) a second deposition station containing a second target comprising a second material for depositing a layer of a counter electrode material on the substrate when the substrate is positioned in the second deposition station;
- and
- (iii) a particle-removal device for removing particles from the surface of the substrate and/or the surface of the electrochromic stack before it is fully-formed;
- and
- (b) a controller comprising:
- program instructions for passing the substrate through the first and second deposition stations in a manner that sequentially deposits a stack on the substrate, the stack comprising the layer of electrochromic material and the layer of counter electrode material;
- and
- program instructions for operating the particle-removal device to remove particles from the surface of the substrate and/or the surface of the electrochromic stack before it is fully-formed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.