FOCUSED R&D FOR ELECTROCHROMIC SMART WINDOWS: SIGNIFICANT PERFORMANCE AND YIELD ENHANCEMENTS

Developments made under this program will play a key role in underpinning the technology for producing EC devices. It is anticipated that the work begun during this period will continue to improve materials properties, and drive yields up and costs down, increase durability and make manufacture simpler and more cost effective. It is hoped that this will contribute to a successful and profitable industry, which will help reduce energy consumption and improve comfort for building occupants worldwide. The first major task involved improvements to the materials used in the process. The improvements made as a result of the work done during this project have contributed to the enhanced performance, including dynamic range, uniformity and electrical characteristics. Another major objective of the project was to develop technology to improve yield, reduce cost, and facilitate manufacturing of EC products. Improvements directly attributable to the work carried out as part of this project and seen in the overall EC device performance, have been accompanied by an improvement in the repeatability and consistency of the production process. Innovative test facilities for characterizing devices in a timely and well-defined manner have been developed. The equipment has been designed in such a way as to make scaling-up to accommodate higher throughput necessary for manufacturing relatively straightforward. Finally, the third major goal was to assure the durability of the EC product, both by developments aimed at improving the product performance, as well as development of novel procedures to test the durability of this new product. Both aspects have been demonstrated, both by carrying out a number of different durability tests, both in-house and by independent third-party testers, and also developing several novel durability tests