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AssigneeSaint-Gobain Glass France
InventorsAlfred Hofrichter, Herve Montigaud, Jean-Christophe Giron
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The invention concerns a method for producing a coating on a support, in particular a glass support, wherein a thin-film metal oxide is deposited on the support, said thin film being subjected to an etching process to roughen its surface, a second coating capable of adhering to the first metal oxide film is then applied on the roughened surface. The invention is characterized in that it consists in depositing a first doped metal oxide or metal oxynitride doped with at least a second metal oxide or metal oxynitride, the second metal oxide or metal oxynitride being distributed in the deposited film. During the etching process, a plasma-activated gas is used which removes at least a second metal oxide or metal oxynitride less than the first metal oxide or metal oxynitride so as to form, after the etching process, on the surface raised irregularities consisting of at least a second metal oxide or metal oxynitride.
A method of producing a coating on a support or a glass surface, comprising
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Pretreatment of the material to be coated: deposition of sub-layers, e.g. to promote the adhesion of the main coating
Surface treatment of glass, not in the form of fibres or filaments
With at least two coatings having different compositions: at least one coating of an organic material and at least one non-metal coating
Oxides: containing silicon
About 1 year 4 months of term left · ends 5 Mar 2028 (estimated)
This application is a 371 of PCT/FR05/050368 filed May 26, 2005 and claims the benefit of DE 10 2004 026 344.2 filed May 26, 2004.
The invention relates to a method for producing a hydrophobic coating that has the features of the preamble of claim 1, to a device for implementing the method and to supports provided with a hydrophobic coating.
Intensive research has been carried out for a long time on coatings that have hydrophobic properties, in particular for window panes, and that thus, on the one hand, improve vision through these window panes in the event of moisture condensation and, on the other hand, are to simplify the cleaning of the window panes.
Further details and advantages of the subject of the invention will emerge from the drawing of an exemplary embodiment and from its detailed description given below.
In the drawing:
FIG. 1 shows schematically, and not to scale, one embodiment of a reactor for the plasma treatment of coated supports;
In FIG. 1, a treatment device 1 (also called a plasma reactor) comprises a vacuum chamber 2 in addition to a pumping device 2P, a receptacle 3 for a support, shown only in sketched form, on which a support 4 has been placed (or on which it may also be moved), a gas distributor 5 and a plasma chamber 7, which is connected to the latter via a duct 6, for activating a working or etching gas of the type indicated previously, which is supplied via a gas inlet 8.
During the operation, the gas is fed into the plasma chamber 7 via the inlet 8 and activated therein by an intense electromagnetic field, that is to say brought into a state of greater chemical activity and greater etching potential. Via the duct 6, it reaches the distributor 5, which distributes it in the vacuum chamber 2 so as to be spread uniformly sufficient for the entire surface of the support placed therein to be in as uniform as possible contact with the etching gas. Because the gas particles are continuously removed by the pumping device 2P out of the vacuum chamber 2, the injected gas is immediately removed with the volatile particles torn off from the coating on the support.
It should be explicitly pointed out that, in this configuration of the installation, the plasma may be spatially restricted to the “prechamber” 7, whereas the working gas passes through the latter. Only the plasma-activated working gas enters the actual treatment or vacuum chamber 2 provided for the coated support. This has the advantage that the plasma is ignited only in the plasma chamber 7 of relatively small volume and can be maintained therein, something which would necessarily require substantially more processing in the larger vacuum chamber. Thus, again, the working or etching gas retains its activated state at least long enough to be in sufficiently prolonged contact with the surface of the support or layer to be etched.