Micro-blinds for smart glass - National Research Council of Canada

The next generation of switchable smart glass: the micro-blinds

By team of scientists: Dr. Boris Lamontagne, Pedro Barrios, Christophe Py and Suwas Nikumb
National Research Council of Canada
Building M-23A 1200 Montreal Road
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6
Canada
boris.lamontagne@nrc.ca

The National Research Council, Canada is developing an innovative technology for smart glass with possible applications in sectors such as building, aircraft , automotive and displays. The micro-blinds are actuated by electrostatic forces; they allow the dynamic control of light transmission at remarkable speed and could lead to major energy savings in buildings. The idea is based on a cost-efficient manufacturing scheme. At the National Research Council, Canada we are developing a new type of smart glass based on micro-blinds (MEMS). The micro-blinds are tiny stressed metallic foils curling up once released or rolling down once actuated using electrostatic forces. Such smart glass is characterized by fast switching speed, UV-temperature insensitive and neutral appearance. Recent results will be presented as a well as our demo. Transmittance and thermal characteristics will also be addressed. There are various possible applications in building, automotive, aerospace as well as in display sectors.

The micro-blinds are composed of invisible and electrostatically activated curling electrodes of 100 micrometers size. They can be deposited on flat glass by magnetron sputtering like regular low-E coatings, and then patterned by laser. They possess several advantages such as switching speed, UV durability, customized appearance and transmission, and do not employ costly ITO, relative to the current smart windows technologies: electrochromic, suspended particles and liquid crystals. Several groups have successfully developed curling electrodes for small area devices; the novelty of the proposed technology lies in the revolutionary and cost-effective processing scheme for large areas.

Details of this research can be found in proceedings of the Glass Performance Days 2009, pp. 637-639, Boris Lamontagne, Pedro Barrios, Christophe Py and Suwas Nikumb, "The next generation of switchable glass: the Micro-blinds".

Source: National Research Council of Canada.

Sarcevoditel/2016