CONDUCTIVE MICRO-WIRE STRUCTURE WITH OFFSET INTERSECTIONS
A conductive micro-wire structure includes a substrate and a plurality of micro-wires formed on or in the substrate in an intersecting pattern and forming intersection corners. A portion of a first micro-wire is coincident with a portion of a second micro-wire to form a coincident portion such that the coincident portion is non-visually resolvable by the human visual system and the coincident portion has a length greater than the sum of the widths of the first and second micro-wires or has one or more rounded intersection corners.
1 . A conductive micro-wire structure, comprising:
a substrate;
an array of first micro-wires arranged in a regular repeating pattern formed on or in the substrate, an array of second micro-wires arranged in a regular repeating pattern formed on or in the substrate, the array of first micro-wires intersecting with the array of second micro-wires at an angle forming intersection corners, wherein a portion of a first micro-wire is coincident with a portion of a second micro-wire to form a coincident portion such that the coincident portion has a length that is non-visually resolvable by the human visual system and the coincident portion has a length greater than the sum of the widths of the first and second micro-wires.
2 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 1 , wherein the substrate defines a plurality of micro-channels and wherein each of the plurality of micro-wires is located only in one micro-channel.
3 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 2 , wherein a cross section of at least one of the micro-channels is rectangular or trapezoidal.
4 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 3 wherein the depth of the rectangular micro-channel is at least 2 microns and at most 10 microns.
5 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 1 , wherein the substrate defines a surface and wherein the plurality of micro-wires is located in or on the surface.
6 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 1 wherein the micro-wires include metals or metal alloys.
7 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 6 wherein the metals or metal alloys include gold, silver, aluminum, titanium, copper, or tin.
8 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 1 wherein the micro-wires include sintered nano-particles.
9 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 1 wherein the substrate is a cured polymer and wherein the substrate is substantially transparent.
10 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 9 wherein the micro-wires are embossed in the cured polymer.
11 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 1 wherein the conductive micro-wire structure forms a substantially transparent electrode.
12 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 10 further including an electronic device having integrated circuits that control the substantially transparent electrode.
13 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 1 wherein the coincident portion has a length less than a predetermined viewing distance multiplied by the tangent of a predetermined human resolution angle such that the intersections of the micro-wires are not visually resolvable.
14 . A conductive micro-wire structure, comprising:
a substrate;
an array of first micro-wires arranged in a regular repeating pattern formed on or in the substrate; and
an array of second micro-wires arranged in a regular repeating pattern formed on or in the substrate intersecting with the first micro-wires and forming intersection corners; and
wherein at least one intersection corner joining one of the first micro-wires with one of the second micro-wires is rounded and has a radius of curvature greater than one quarter of the width of the first or second micro-wires.
15 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 14 wherein the micro-wires are embossed in the substrate.
16 . The micro-wire structure of claim 14 , wherein the radius of curvature of the one or more intersection corners has a radius of curvature greater than or equal to one third of the first or second micro-wire width.
17 . The micro-wire structure of claim 14 , wherein the radius of curvature of the one or more intersection corners has a radius of curvature greater than or equal to one half of the first or second micro-wire width.
18 . The micro-wire structure of claim 14 , wherein the width of the first micro-wire is equal to the width of the second micro-wire.
19 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 14 wherein the substrate is an embossed polymer.
20 . The conductive micro-wire structure of claim 1 wherein the coincident portion has one or more rounded intersection corners.