Spacers for insulated glass units
View Patent ↗This disclosure provides spacers for smart windows. In one aspect, a window assembly includes a first substantially transparent substrate having an optically switchable device on a surface of the first substrate. The optically switchable device includes electrodes. A first electrode of the electrodes has a length about the length of a side of the optically switchable device. The window assembly further includes a second substantially transparent substrate a metal spacer between the first and the second substrates. The metal spacer has a substantially rectangular cross section, with one side of the metal spacer including a recess configured to accommodate the length of the first electrode such that there is no contact between the first electrode and the metal spacer. A primary seal material bonds the first substrate to the metal spacer and bonds the second substrate to the metal spacer.
1. An insulated glass unit comprising:
an electrochromic lite comprising a first transparent substrate and layers of an electrochromic device deposited thereon; the electrochromic lite having a bus bar configured to deliver power to the electrochromic device;
a second lite comprising a second transparent substrate;
a spacer disposed between the electrochromic lite and the second lite;
a sealing material in a first interface between the spacer and the first transparent substrate and in a second interface between the spacer and the second transparent substrate, the sealing material forming a hermetic seal between an interior region of the insulated glass unit and an exterior region outside of the hermetic seal, wherein the interior region is defined by inner surfaces of the first and second transparent substrates and interior faces of the spacer, and the electrochromic device is on a surface of the first transparent substrate facing the interior region; and
a wire passing through the spacer; the wire making an electrical connection to the bus bar and configured for electrical connection to a power source.
2. The insulated glass unit of claim 1 , wherein the electrochromic lite is a laminate of multiple substrates including the first transparent substrate.
3. The insulated glass unit of claim 1 , wherein the wire provides electrical communication from the bus bar in the interior region of the insulated glass unit to a region comprising a secondary seal area of the insulated glass unit.
4. The insulated glass unit of claim 1 , wherein the spacer is a metal spacer.
5. The insulated glass unit of claim 4 , wherein the metal spacer comprises a hole, wherein the wire passes through the hole in the spacer; the hole sealed around the wire.
6. The insulated glass unit of claim 1 , wherein the wire passes through the spacer from the exterior region outside the spacer's outer perimeter to the bus bar in the interior region.
7. The insulated glass unit of claim 1 , wherein the bus bar resides on a layer of the electrochromic device deposited on the inner surface of the first transparent substrate.
8. An insulated glass unit comprising a spacer configured to accommodate a pair of connector keys, the pair of connector keys aligned with a pair of bus bar leads at opposite sides of an electrochromic device on a transparent substrate of the insulated glass unit; wherein each of the pair of connector keys and the spacer have substantially co-planar surfaces for mating with the transparent substrates of the insulated glass unit.
9. The insulated glass unit of claim 8 , wherein the spacer is a hollow metal spacer having a substantially rectangular cross section wherein open ends of the hollow metal spacer are configured to slide over a portion of each of the pair of connector keys.
10. The insulated glass unit of claim 8 , wherein the spacer is a hollow metal spacer having a substantially rectangular cross section wherein open ends of the hollow metal spacer are configured to slide into a portion of each of the pair of connector keys.
11. The insulated glass unit of claim 8 , wherein each of the pair of connector keys is configured to accommodate one of the pair of bus bar leads or one of a pair of wires configured to deliver power to the electrochromic device.
12. The insulated glass unit of claim 11 , wherein each of the pair of connector keys comprises a channel configured to accommodate the one of the pair of bus bar leads or the one of the pair of wires.
13. The insulated glass unit of claim 12 , wherein the channel is between about 0.1 mm and about 1 mm high, and is between about 4.5 mm and about 10 mm wide.
14. The insulated glass unit of claim 11 , wherein each of the pair of connector keys is not in electrical communication with the one of the pair of bus bar leads or the one of the pair of wires.
15. The insulated glass unit of claim 8 , wherein each of the pair of connector keys is made of a metal or a plastic.