ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT OF MULTISPECTRAL TRANSMITTING E ECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE WINDOWS

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MULTISPECTRAL TRANSMITTING ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE (EC) THIN FILM COATINGS TO SERVE AS HEATERS FOR DEICING/DEFOGGING, SHIELDS AGAINST ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE, AND REFLECTORS TO PROVIDE A UNIFORM RADAR CROSS SECTION FOR WINDOWS IN ELECTRO-OPTICAL SYSTEMS IS PROPOSED. THE PROJECT OBJECTIVE IS TO DEVELOP A WINDOW WITH 80 - 90% TRANSMITTANCE IN BOTH THE VISIBLE AND 8 - 12 M WAVEBANDS, AND 20 OHMS/SQUARE MAXIMUM SURFACE RESISTIVITY. PREVIOUS EFFORTS TO DEVELOP MULTISPECTRAL TRANSPARENT EC COATINGS WERE BASED ON MATERIALS OPTIMIZED FOR THE VISIBLE REGION. PERFORMANCE OF THESE EC COATINGS IS NOT SATISFACTORY FOR MANY APPLICATIONS. AN INVESTIGATION OF MULTILAYER EC COATINGS IS PROPOSED. THE INVESTIGATION WOULD INCLUDE OPTICAL THIN FILM DESIGN AND VACUUM DEPOSITION OF EC AND DIELECTRIC MATERIALS. THE EC MULTILAYER OPTICAL DESIGN WOULD BE DEPOSITED ON CLEAR ZNS AND ZNSE SUBSTRATES IN AN ATTEMPT TO MEET THE PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES. THE SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF MULTISPECTRAL TRANSMITTING EC COATINGS WOULD ALLOW SOLUTION TO EXISTING NEEDS FOR DEICING/DEFOGGING HEATERS, EMI SHIELDS AND TRANSPARENT ELECTRODES IN EO SYSTEMS. SIMILAR FUNCTIONAL NEEDS EXISTS IN MANY COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS.