Coatings on plastics with the PICVD technology

Plasma impulse chemical vapor deposition (PICVD) was developed by Schott more than 10 years ago. It was the first CVD based coating technology for the mass production of optical coatings on glass components (cold light mirrors, infrared reflective coatings and others). During the last few years, a modified PICVD-process for the deposition of three different functional coatings on plastics has been developed. These functions-anti-reflective, anti-scratch and easy-to-clean layers-are provided by only one technology-PICVD. This is a major progress compared for instance to the standard production line of polymer based eyeglass lenses, which uses a PVD process for anti-reflective coating, dip coating for anti-scratch and plasma polymerization for easy-to-clean coatings. Moreover, the development was extended to different kinds of plastics including optical polymers like polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polycarbonate (PC). Until now, plasma CVD coating technologies were not capable of depositing durable functional coatings on PMMA with a sustained adhesion to the substrate. A completely new layer system on PMMA with an adapted adhesive layer has been developed for these coatings. Durability has been proven by passing different types of functionality tests like tape test, grid test, climate tests or temperature shock tests. In the near future, Schott will start the first mass-production of coatings on plastics with the PICVD technology, e.g. in the telecommunications and automotive business. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.