Large Area Coatings

Large Area Coatings, generally considered to be on substrates or aggregates of substrates larger than one square meter, are found all around us in applications for communication, recreation, architecture, eyewear, lighting, entertainment, electronics, airplanes, aerospace, automotive and so on. The Symposium theme for our 2021 TechCon, “Thin Film Solutions for a Sustainable Future” is vitally important to the large area community. For example, how will the large-area, low-E community respond to developing coatings based on alternative materials with reduced environmental refining challenges? How will deposition processes be developed and scaled at the order of magnitude required for global scale energy storage? What are the challenges for improving the recycling potential of thin film coated products bringing greater value at lower cost to the marketplace?

Large Area manufacturing typically provides the benefits of low cost, high volume, excellent quality and low capital cost per unit yielded capacity. In 2021 the Large Area Technical Advisory Committee invites presentations in the following and related areas:

• “Thin Film Solutions for a Sustainable Future”, including:

– Battery technology (e.g. post-lithium)
– Energy storage (hydrogen – from the cradle to the grave: generation, storage, fuel cells)
– Life cycle management
– Replacing/substituting limited raw materials as well as materials whose refinement poses environmental challenges
– Solutions for recycling costly materials
– CO2 footprint reduction in mobility and transportation

• Communications and Displays

– Touch screen, cell phone and other active display applications
– Semiconductor deposition and fabrication

• Architectural and Automotive thin film materials, processes, equipment and applications including:

– Low-emissivity, absorbing and reflective architectural coatings
– Electrochromic and other smart window coatings
– Transparent conductor, anti-reflection and mirror coatings
– Temperable and bendable coatings
– Windshield coatings (heat reflecting, hydrophobic/hydrophilic)
– Antennas, including fractal circuits
– Surface modification coatings: friction-reducing, wear-resistance, chemical-resistance, thermal control, anti-reflection, mirror and barrier coatings
– Decorative coatings for automotive reflectors, trim etc.

• Green/alternative energy applications including:

– Thin film photovoltaic and semiconductor materials

Large Area Coatings TAC Chair: Brent Boyce, Guardian Industries Corp., bboyce@guardian.com; Assistant TAC Chairs: Michael Andreasen, Vacuum Edge, michael.andreasen@vacuumedge.com; Ken Nauman, VON ARDENNE, nauman.ken@vonardenne.biz