Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) as a Method to produce High Aspect Ratio Conductive Flakes for Advanced Bispectral or Infrared (IR) Obscuration

There is a significant need to improve the IR attenuation performance of military obscurants and advanced nanostructures could fulfill this demand. Metal flakes Physical vapor deposition (PVD) affirm that more than order of magnitude increases over current performance levels are possible if high aspect-ratio conductive flakes/discs can be effectively disseminated as an un-agglomerated aerosol cloud. Highly stable and highly conductive metal flakes with accurate dimension control will provide a new solution for Army’s high extinction bi-spectral and FIR obscuration. Luna Innovations will develop a novel low cost fabrication approach to produce highly conductive and high aspect ratio metal flakes (MFs) with desired dimensional parameters for bi-spectral and FIR obscurant applications. The high quality MFs will be produced by using a unique fabrication procedure that integrates the photo-roller lithography (PRL) process and a roll to roll (R2R) PVD disposition process. Highly stable metal/alloy materials will be used for the MF production. The most promising products will be scaled up for U.S. Army evaluation.