MITIGATING DEFECTS USING POLYGON ABLATION PATTERN

1 . A method of determining a polygon ablation pattern for mitigating one or more defects in an optical device, the method comprising: a. identifying spatial coordinates of one or more defect areas in a first image of the optical device taken when tinted; b. defining a region of interest around at least one defect area of the one or more defect areas; and c. determining a polygon boundary around the at least one defect area in the region of interest to define the polygon ablation pattern.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a background image from the first image of the optical device.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the background image is generated by removing one or more objects from the first image.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the background image is generated using filtering and/or thresholding to remove the one or more objects from the first image.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one defect area comprises a group of neighboring pixels having peak intensities in the background image.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein peak intensities comprise intensity values within 1%, within 5%, or within 10% of a maximum pixel intensity value in the background image.

7 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining each of the at least one defect area by identifying a group of neighboring pixels in the region of interest having peak intensities in the background image.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein peak intensities are intensities within 1%, 5%, or 10% of a maximum pixel intensity in the first image.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein spatial coordinates of each of the one or more defect areas are at a geometric center of a group of neighboring pixels having peak intensities.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein spatial coordinates of each of the one or more defect areas are at a location of a pixel of the first image having an intensity within 5% of a maximum intensity.

11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the first image of the optical device from a camera.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical device is an electrochromic device.

13 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the region of interest is a circular region defined by a radius and centered around a defect region center of a group of neighboring pixels having peak intensities in the background image.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the radius is in a range from about 10 μm to about 100 μm.

15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising determining the radius using the background image.

16 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising determining the radius using spatial coordinates of an outermost pixel in a group of neighboring pixels having peak intensities in the background image.

17 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one defect area in the region of interest comprises a cluster of defect areas; and wherein the polygon boundary is determined by combining boundaries of defect areas in the cluster of defect areas.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the polygon boundary is determined by pixels identified at a border of a connected region formed by combining boundaries of defect areas in the cluster of defect areas.

19 . The method of claim 17 , wherein c. comprises identifying the cluster of defect areas in the region of interest of the background image as defect areas within a distance of each other.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the distance is one of 1 μm, 2 μm, 3 μm, 4 μm, and 5 μm.

21 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising using a morphological operation to combine the boundaries of the defect areas in the cluster of defect areas.

22 . The method of claim 17 , wherein c. comprises: defining boundaries of all defect areas within the region of interest; and determining the polygon boundary by combining boundaries of defect areas in the cluster of defect areas.

23 . The method of claim 17 , wherein c. comprises determining the polygon boundary around each of the cluster of defect areas using one or more of an image filtering operation, an image thresholding operation, and a morphological operation.

24 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

(i) directing, or causing the direction of, one or more laser spots to follow the polygon boundary; and/or

(ii) directing, or causing the direction of, one or more laser spots to scan over a region within the polygon boundary.

25 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising directing, or causing the direction of, one or more laser spots to ablate along at least a portion of the polygon boundary.

26 . The method of claim 25 , wherein the one or more laser spots start and stop within the polygon boundary.

27 . The method of claim 24 , wherein the one or more laser spots follow a path that overlap along the polygon boundary.

28 . The method of claim 27 , wherein the one or more laser spots follow a path that overlaps by at least 10%.

29 . The method of claim 27 , wherein depth of laser ablation is at least through an uppermost layer of the optical device.

30 . The method of claim 27 , wherein depth of laser ablation is at least through one or more transparent conductor layers of the optical device.

31 . The method of claim 27 , wherein depth of laser ablation is through all layers of the optical device.

32 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising directing, or causing the direction of, one or more laser spots to scan over the entire region within the polygon boundary.

33 . A method of mitigating one or more defects in an optical device, the method comprising:

identifying spatial coordinates of one or more defect areas in an image of the optical device taken when tinted;

determining a polygon boundary around the one or more defect areas; and

directing, or causing the direction of, one or more laser spots to follow along the polygon boundary to mitigate the one or more defects in the optical device.

34 . The method of claim 33 , wherein the one or more laser spots start and stop within the polygon boundary.

35 . The method of claim 33 , wherein the one or more laser spots follow a path that overlaps.

36 . The method of claim 33 , wherein the one or more laser spots follow a path that overlaps by at least 10%.

37 . The method of claim 33 , wherein depth of laser ablation is at least through an uppermost layer of the optical device.

38 . The method of claim 33 , wherein depth of laser ablation is at least through one layer of the optical device.

39 . The method of claim 33 , wherein depth of laser ablation is at least through one or more transparent conductor layers of the optical device.

40 . The method of claim 33 , wherein depth of laser ablation is through all layers of the optical device.