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US 4,378,953 AGranted
Thin, optical membranes and methods and apparatus for making them
AssigneeAdvanced Semiconductor Products, Inc.
InventorRay Winn
Life of this patent
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AssigneeAdvanced Semiconductor Products, Inc.
InventorRay Winn
Estimating the term…
Edge-supported and fully supported membranes having substantially uniform thickness, and substantially parallel surfaces, and having the capacity to transmit at least about 90% of incident light with very little diffraction, dispersion or absorption of incident light are made by forming a polymer/solvent mixture, spin-coating a film of the polymer from the mixture onto a rotatable surface, which may have a release agent thereon, and, where a release agent is present, joining a frame or other support to the membrane and removing the membrane with its attached support from the surface. Apparatus for making such membranes includes a dispenser for dispensing a polymer/solvent mixture onto a rotatable support; a device for spinning the rotatable support at gradually increasing speeds from a first to a second speed; and a device for maintaining the speed of rotation of the support at the second speed until the membrane forms.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported and having a predetermined thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers, with a precision of plus or minus about 2%, edge-to-edge variations in said thickness of less than about 2% over a distance of at least about 2.5 centimeters, and a capacity to transmit an average of at least about 91% of incident light with less than about 2% combined absorption and diffraction losses of said incident light over a span of wavelengths of incident light in the range of about 260 to about 1,000 nanometers.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported and having a precise, predetermined thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers, the precision being plus or minus about 2%, edge-to-edge variations in said thickness of less than about 2% over a distance of at least about 2.5 centimeters, and a capacity to transmit an average of at least about 91% of incident light over a span of wavelengths of incident light where the span of wavelengths of said incident light is in the range of about 260 to 1,000 nanometers.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported and having a precise, predetermined thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers, the precision being plus or minus about 2%, and a capacity to transmit an average of at least about 91% of incident light with less than about 3% combined absorption, diffraction and dispersion losses of said incident light where the wavelength span for the average transmission of incident light is in the range of about 260 to about 1,000 nanometers.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported and having a predetermined, precise thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers, the precision being plus or minus about 2%, and the capacity to transmit an average of at least about 91% of incident light where the wavelengths of incident light range from about 260 to about 546 nanometers.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported and having a predetermined, precise thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers, the precision being plus or minus about 2%, edge-to-edge variations in said thickness of less than about 2% over a distance of at least about 2.5 centimeters, and the capacity to transmit about 99% of incident light at at least one predetermined wavelength of incident light in the range of about 260 to about 1,000 nanometers.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported and having a precise, predetermined thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers with a precision of plus or minus about 2%, edge-to-edge variations in said thickness of less than about 2% over a distance of at least about 2.5 centimeters, and the capacity to transmit about 99% of incident light at at least one predetermined wavelength of incident light in the range of about 260 to about 546 nanometers.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported and having a precise, predetermined thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers, the precision being plus or minus about 2%, with edge-to-edge variations in said thickness of less than about 2% over a distance of at least about 2.5 centimeters, said membrane being made by dispensing a polymer/solvent mixture onto a rotatable supporting surface, and spinning said rotatable surface under conditions sufficient to form said membrane from said polymer.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported and having a predetermined, precise thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers, with edge-to-edge variations in said thickness of less than about 2% over a distance of at least about 2.5 centimeters, and a capacity to transmit an average of at least about 91% of incident light over a span of wavelengths of incident light in the range of about 260 to about 1,000 nanometers, said membrane being made by dispensing a polymer/solvent mixture onto a rotatable supporting surface, and spinning said rotatable surface under conditions sufficient to form said membrane from said polymer.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported, and having a predetermined, precise thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers with edge-to-edge variations in said thickness of less than about 2% over a distance of at least about 2.5 centimeters, said membrane having the capacity to transmit about 99% of incident light at at least one predetermined wavelength of light in the range of about 260 to about 1,000 nanometers, said membrane being made by a process comprising dispensing a polymer/solvent mixture onto a rotatable supporting surface, and spinning said rotatable supporting surface under conditions sufficient to form said membrane from said polymer.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported, and having a predetermined, precise thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers, the precision being plus or minus about 2%, edge-to-edge variations in said thickness of less than about 2% over a distance of at least about 2.5 centimeters, said membrane being a pellicle with a capacity to transmit an average of at least about 91% of incident light where the incident light wavelengths range from about 260 nanometers to about 450 nanometers.
An optical membrane capable of being edge-supported and having a predetermined, precise thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers, the precision being plus or minus about 2% said membrane being made by a process comprising dispensing a polymer/solvent mixture onto a rotatable supporting surface, and spinning said rotatable surface under conditions sufficient to form said membrane from said polymer.
An optical membrane, capable of being edge-supported, and having a precise, predetermined thickness in the range of about 0.5 to about 10 micrometers, the precision being plus or minus about 2%, edge to edge variations in said thickness of less than about 2% over a distance of at least about 2.5 centimeters and a capacity to transmit at least one predetermined percentage of incident light in the range of about 96% to about 99% of incident light over a range of wavelengths of incident light in the range of about 260 to about 1,000 nanometers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.