Method of manufacturing electrooptic devices
This invention discloses a low cost method to manufacture electrooptic devices at low cost and discloses materials that may be used in fabrication of electrooptic devices.
1. An integrated process for manufacturing an electrochromic curved automotive mirror, wherein said electrochromic mirror comprises of at least one substrate and a conductive coating, said integrated process comprises the following steps:
a. molding a substrate, wherein said substrate comprising front and rear surfaces,
b. and a coating step, wherein at least one of surfaces of the said substrates is coated;
wherein the substrates is molded in a curved shape so as to conform to a shape to provide a free form reflective surface.
2. The integrated process of claim 1 , wherein the said mirror is an exterior automotive mirror.
3. The integrated process of claim 1 , wherein said integrated process comprises the following steps:
a. molding a pair of plastic substrates, each comprising front and rear surfaces,
b. and a coating step, wherein at least one of the surfaces of each of the said pair of substrates is coated to prepare a pair of coated substrates.
4. The integrated process of claim 3 , further comprising the steps of
a. assembling said coated pair of substrates to form a cavity between the pair of substrates
b. and filling the said cavity with an electrooptic medium to provide the electrochromic curved automotive mirror.
5. The integrated process of claim 4 , wherein the process further includes a step of automated inspection of said electrochromic curved automotive mirror to automatically sort between acceptable and the unacceptable devices.
6. The integrated molding process of claim 3 wherein molding the pair of plastic substrates comprises injection molding the pair of plastic substrates.
7. An automotive rearview electrochromic mirror comprising an electrochromic medium and a reflecting surface wherein the said reflecting surface has a free form reflecting shape that has a field of view larger than 30°.
8. An automotive rearview electrochromic mirror as in claim 7 , wherein the electrochromic medium is located between two substrates, one, of which has a reflective coating and the other substrate has a transparent conductive coating.
9. An automotive rearview electrochromic mirror comprising an electrochromic medium and a reflecting surface wherein the said reflecting surface comprising a coating formed out of a nanophase metallic alloy.