Thin-film coatings, made through physical or chemical vapor deposition, are used in various industries. Optical coatings reduce reflection and are used in cameras and lasers. Ceramic coatings are used in cutting tools, medical devices, and Li-ion batteries. Dye-sensitized solar cells use thin films of titanium dioxide.
Thin-film coatings consist of dielectric, metal, and oxide compounds commonly used in semiconductor industry, military, and optical device applications. Manufacturing processes typically involve physical vapor deposition, such as sputter deposition or chemical vapor deposition where chemical reactions and high-energy plasmas are used to deposit the film. Coatings classified as thin films are generally considered to have a maximum thickness of one micron or 1,000 nanometers and can be ferromagnetic, ceramic, or some level of conductive or insulating material.
Optical coatings are a major production area for thin film coatings and provide important uses such as laser filters and eye protection for laser surgery in medicine. Anti-reflection coatings are used extensively in the lenses of cameras, telescopes and digital video disc (DVD) players to reduce the normal reflection of light which would degrade the performance of such equipment. Some thin-film coatings in optics are also multilayered to interact differently with various wavelengths of light and are used in computer monitors, eyewear with reflective and anti-reflective qualities, and cameras. Reflective optical coatings are mirror-like and usually made of aluminum, gold, or silver, where they are used in industrial and military copiers, barcode scanners, and high-power lasers.
Ceramic thin films are used to coat cutting tools exposed to chemical and thermal stress, in medical uses for their inert qualities and in many other industries. Li-ion battery substrates composed of ceramic thin-film coatings have been used in the electronics industry as of 2011 and have been refined through more than a decade of research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States. The ceramic base for the IC is a platform for implanted batteries capable of operating over a wide temperature range, from -4° to 284° Fahrenheit (-20° to 140° Celsius) and be of any shape or size , and this gives the circuits wider applications than those of conventional design. Their ability to operate at temperatures up to 536° Fahrenheit (280° Celsius) if needed makes them useful for sensors, smart cards and implantable medical devices, such as defibrillators and neural stimulators.
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are also based on the deposition of thin films of titanium dioxide, TiO2, although they are usually between 5 and 20 microns thick. The technology involves a combination of thin-film coatings of ceramic, semiconductor and optical materials and is designed to last 20 years of exposure to sunlight. The solid-state designs for the electronics of these solar cells hold the promise of making them more affordable and simpler to manufacture than standard silicon-based solar cells.
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