Invention:
The invention is a means of allowing a substrate like glass, a mirror or plastic, to flex after a coating is applied.
Background:
Flexible glass is employed as a substrate for vapor deposited thin films to create low-cost curved mirrors in shapes like parabolic, hyperbolic, etc. The elasticity of substrate material may be exploited to create free-standing contours defined by an underlying mechanical constraint. These flexible mirrors may be tiled as a means of laminating larger curved surfaces. This invention eliminates the need for deposition of complex multilayer coatings by allowing for standard deposition onto a flat flexible glass substrate and forms flexible glass onto an underlying supporting substrate.
Applications:
- Concentrated solar power systems
- Concentrated photovoltaic systems
- Reflective telescopes
- Laser construction
Advantages:
- Higher optical transparency
- Improved thermal stability
- Improved wear/abrasion resistance
- Greater mechanical strength
- Reduced optical degradation
- Scalable for large volume applications via tiling
- Improved thermal/mechanical shock resistance
- Reduced mass and CTE
- Reduced forming cost view
- Pseudo self-forming
- Significant simplification of thin film coating process
