Method of coating a substance on a surface of an article using a single meniscus
AssigneesPaul Lewis, Alan Loudermilk
InventorPaul E. Lewis
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Abstract
A system for applying a thin coat of a material on one side only of a substrate is disclosed together with a process for applying the thin coat. Coatings of less than one thousand angstroms are attainable on a single surface of the substrate by controlling the speed at which a meniscus of a mix containing a predetermined concentration of the to coating material travels across the single surface being coated. Various pressure, temperature and humidity controls are implemented in the process and by the apparatus as needed to obtain the desired coating characteristics.
Claims19
A method of applying a coating of a substance onto an article, wherein the article includes a coating-only surface on which the substance is to be coated and one or more other surfaces on which the substance is not to be coated comprising the steps of:
- providing a predetermined concentration of the substance in a solvent mix;
- placing an amount of the solvent mix in a container so that the solvent mix has a coating contact surface, wherein the coating contact surface comprises a substantially undisturbed free surface and is accessible for contact by the coating-only surface;
- positioning the coating-only surface in contact with and at a predetermined angle to the coating contact surface, so that a single meniscus is formed in the solvent mix extending between the coating contact surface and the coating-only surface;
- and
- separating the coating-only surface and the solvent mix at a separation rate so that the single meniscus traverses the coating-only surface at a rate related to a solvent evaporation rate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.