Granted Patent B2

US 8,225,238 · App. 12/911,540 · Granted Jul 17, 2012

Abstract

Claims (25)

1. A method of fabricating a transparent conductor, the method comprising:

specifying a transparent conductor physical characteristic;

generating a target nanowire physical characteristic by comparing the transparent conductor physical characteristic to stored reference data correlating the transparent conductor physical characteristic to at least one reference nanowire physical characteristic; and

fabricating a transparent conductor film having nanowires with the target nanowire physical characteristic.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transparent conductor physical characteristic comprises at least one of a sheet resistance, an optical density, a transmission, and a haze.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the target nanowire physical characteristic comprises at least one of a nanowire length, nanowire diameter, or nanowire density.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the stored reference data comprises one or more reference data sets indicative of characteristic sheet resistances, characteristic optical densities, characteristic transmission levels, characteristic haze levels, or combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one reference nanowire physical characteristic comprises:

one or more nanowire dimensions and corresponding nanowire densities that satisfy at least one transparent conductor physical characteristic, and that satisfy or exceed a minimum percolation density.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the minimum percolation density is about a factor of 5.7 greater than the inverse of an average of a square of nanowire lengths.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one reference nanowire physical characteristic comprises:

a nanowire dimension and a nanowire density that satisfy at least one transparent conductor physical characteristic, and that satisfy or exceed a minimum percolation density by at least a factor of about 1.1.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one reference nanowire physical characteristic comprises one or more nanowire density versus sheet resistance over nanowire resistance plots; nanowire length versus nanowire diameter, for a given sheet resistance plot; nanowire length over nanowire diameter square versus sheet resistance plots; percent haze versus nanowire density times nanowire cross-sectional area plots; or optical density versus nanowire density times nanowire cross-sectional area plots.

9. A method, comprising:

determining sets of nanowire values based on at least one electrical or optical property of a nanowire transparent conductor, the sets comprising a nanowire length, a nanowire width or diameter, and a corresponding density;

generating a manufacturing specification based on the determined sets of nanowire values for manufacturing the transparent conductor; and

manufacturing the transparent conductor according to the manufacturing specification.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein determining the sets of nanowire values comprises:

retrieving model data that correlates a nanowire length, nanowire diameter, or a nanowire density, or combinations thereof, to corresponding electrical or optical property of reference nanowire transparent conductors; and

determining sets of nanowire values based on the retrieved model data.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the manufacturing specification includes at least one of a manufacturing process protocol, an average nanowire length, an average nanowire diameter, an average nanowire resistance, and an average nanowire density.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein determining the sets of nanowire values comprises:

retrieving stored data correlating electrical or optical property of reference nanowire transparent conductors to physical measurements of reference nanowire-including transparent conductors, experimental measurements of nanowire compositions, or manufacturing conditions that affect electrical and optical properties of the nanowire-including transparent conductor; and

determining sets of nanowire values based on the retrieved stored data.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the manufacturing specification includes at least one of a nanowire density versus sheet resistance over nanowire resistance plot; a nanowire length versus nanowire diameter, for a given sheet resistance plot; a nanowire length over nanowire diameter square versus sheet resistance plot; a percent haze versus nanowire density times nanowire cross-sectional area plot; and an optical density versus nanowire density times nanowire cross-sectional area plot.

Assignments (9)