Beneq develops new ALD application for glass industry

Beneq, Finland, a company providing industrial and R&D equipment and technology for functional coatings, brings ALD technology to the glass industry. Here, nanocoatings using Beneq’s industrial ALD systems are applied to increase resistance to cracking. Matti Putkonen, senior scientist at Beneq and a professor at Helsinki University of Technology, presented his development work results at the Society of Glass Technology Annual Conference 2009 in Lancaster, U.K., on Sept. 17, 2009.

Glass is a very strong material, but microcracks near the edges create weak points, where glass breakage often starts. ALD coating fills these nanoscale cracks and significantly improves the strength of the glass. This increased cracking-resistance is valued especially highly in display, thin-film solar cell, architectural glass, and glass-based sensor applications. In testing, very thin ALD films were deposited on small glass substrates, and larger ones, of up to 1200 x 1200 mm2. Batches of smaller pieces were coated with the Beneq TFS 500 ALD system, while bigger samples were evaluated with the P400A, P800, and TFS 1200 systems. According to the four point bending tests, significant improvement in cracking strength was obtained by means of these ALD coatings, according to a Sept. 24 Nanowerk News report.

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