Method of producing structured inorganic layers

Details Method of producing structured inorganic layers Method of producing structured inorganic layers

1997-01-10

1998-06-16

Cameron, Erma

Coating processes

Heat decomposition of applied coating or base material

427359, 427387, B05D 302, B05D 312

Patent

active

057666806

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION



Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a process for producing structured, optionally functional, inorganic (glass-like, glass-ceramic or ceramic) layers on substrates.
Particularly, the invention relates to a process for producing structured inorganic layers on substrates which is characterized in that an inorganic-organic system, obtainable by hydrolysis and polycondensation of groups or hydroxyl groups, or an oligomer derived therefrom, and carrying a functional group, X has the meaning specified above, and a and b have a value of 0, 1, 2 or 3, the sum (a+b) having a value of 1, 2 or 3, or an oligomer derived therefrom, elements, applied as layer onto a substrate, the applied system is structured and the structured coating is thermally densified to form a structured layer, the profile of the structure remaining unchanged.


BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts the land structure after drying at 80 degrees C.
FIG. 2 depicts the land structure after densification at 500 degrees C.


DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The process according to the present invention is based on the surprising finding that the structured coating applied onto the substrate can be subjected to a thermal densification at high temperatures without changing the profile of the structure, despite the relatively high proportion of organic (carbon-containing) components of said coating. In the thermal densification, a continuous transformation from an organically modified glass (or ceramic, respectively) to a purely inorganic (carbon-free) SiO.sub.2 glass (or ceramic, respectively) takes place.
It is already known that certain organically modified, inorganic sol-gel coatings may be converted into inorganic systems by means of a suitable thermal treatment without adversely affecting the coatings. Further, it is also known that inorganic sol-gel coatings may on principle be structured by means of embossing processes and may be transformed to inorganic, glass-like layers by thermal densification at temperatures of from 500.degree. to 700.degree. C. In said cases the heights of the structures may, however, not exceed a few hundred nm, and due to an extremely high shrinkage (30 to 70% by vol.), a "near net shaping" is impossible. Therefore, it is surprising that the coating systems employed according to the present invention retain a profile created in the gel state upon thermal densification. Particularly, no rounding of structured edges occurs, as it is generally known for other structuring processes for inorganic materials (e.g., screen printing with ceramic paints, hot pressing of silicate glasses or molding processes with glass powders). According to the present invention, layer thicknesses of up to about 10 .mu.m may be realized without any problems and structure hights of the same order of magnitude may be transferred into the material, e.g., by means of embossing processes, without observing a change in the profile of the structure upon transformation into the (purely) inorganic form by thermal treatment.
Examples of the hydrolyzable groups X in the hydrolyzable silanes (A) and the organosilanes (B) are hydrogen or halogen (F, Cl, Br or I), alkoxy (preferably C.sub.1-6 alkoxy, such as methoxy, ethoxy, n-propoxy, i-propoxy and butoxy), aryloxy (preferably C.sub.6-10 aryloxy, such as phenoxy), acyloxy (preferably C.sub.1-6 acyloxy, such as acetoxy or propionyloxy), alkylcarbonyl (preferably C.sub.2-7 alkylcarbonyl, such as acetyl), amino, monoalkylamino or dialkylamino having preferably 1 to 12, particularly 1 to 6, carbon atoms.
Examples of the non-hydrolyzable radical R.sup.1 are alkyl (preferably C.sub.1-6 alkyl, such as methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isopropyl, n-butyl, s-butyl and t-butyl, pentyl, hexyl or cyclohexyl), alkenyl (preferably C.sub.2-6 alkenyl, such as vinyl, 1-propenyl, 2-propenyl and butenyl), alkynyl (preferably C.sub.2-6 alkynyl, such as acetylenyl and propargyl) and aryl (preferably C.sub.6-10 aryl, such as phenyl and naphthyl). The mentioned radic

REFERENCES:
patent: 4243692 (1981-01-01), Scholze et al.
patent: 4840666 (1989-06-01), Schmidt et al.
Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. (1994), 346, 915-21, Kasemann et al.
Proc. SPIE-Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. (1994), 2288, 120-9, Mennig et al.
Riv. Stn. Sper. VETRO (1992), 22(1), 11-13, Schmidt et al.

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