Alloyed source material for high performance glass coatings

Purpose and goal

The positive outcome of the Fraunhofer IST verification activity enabled us to demonstrate the capabilities of our alloy sputter source material directly at the customer´s facility, providing invaluable information about our new alloy under real industrial conditions. We also captured figures for the energy saving (i.e., CO2 reduction) benefits of our greentech innovation, providing a quantitative estimate of the contribution towards achieving Goal 13 of the UN´s "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development".

Expected results and effects

In partnership with a market leading Tier-1 material supplier, we successfully co-created new knowledge to prototype a new alloy sputter source material, verified its performance at Fraunhofer IST, and demonstrated its capabilities at a customer site using their pre-production tool. The demonstration activity validated that our alloy sputter source material can exceed industry best practice in terms of optical performance, temperability and durability. As part of the customer´s stage-gate process, we will continue demonstration activities in the 1st half of 2019.

Planned approach and implementation

Alloyed sputter sources of different compositions were fabricated and characterized with the project partner, and evaluated at Fraunhofer IST where we determined which alloy compositions can produce the desired MIMSI layer (new IP was filed based on the results). This interim milestone was achieved sooner than expected and accelerated the project timeline, which enabled us to demonstrate the capabilities of our alloy sputter source material directly at the customer´s facility (a valuable opportunity that was originally planned as a post-project activity).