Antireflective nanopatterned surface treatment for glass

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Antireflection (AR) glass surfaces are key components of modern electronic displays, solar panels, LED, and OLED lighting and lenses. Current technology employs AR thin-films that have inconsistent performance across different incident angles and wavelengths, and are susceptible to mechanical wear. Edgehog, based at the Montreal-based incubator TandemLaunch Inc., is a nanotechnology start-up beginning to commercialize bio-inspired, anti-reflective "moth-eye" nanostructures that provide a scalable approach to drastically reducing reflections (> 0,2%) on glass substrates over the entire visible and near-IR spectrum, even at large angles of incidence. Their technology includes the use of polymer self-assembly for nanopatterning of a protective mask, metal deposition within the nano-mask, and subsequent plasma etching to create deep moth-eye patterns. While this method creates the best optimum broad-wavelength anti-reflection performance suitable for high-performance applications, such as high-resolution displays and specialty solar panels, the cost of plasma etching prevents their deployment in low-cost devices.One method typically employed to lower the cost of fabrication includes the functionalization of large sheets of glass and subsequent cutting or machining of the large sheets. Unfortunately, this approach is currently unsuitable for tempered or chemically strengthened aluminosilicate, the current state-of-the-art; when attempting to machine this material that has an intrinsically complex stress-state, it easily shatters.The proposed research project will therefore help address the main difficulty preventing the commercial application of anti-reflective nanostructures, as fabricated by Edgehogc: the ability to machine and pattern tempered or chemically-strengthened glass.