Glass and ITO coverslips
Capability
Diamond Coatings can offer a full range of glass types and offer expert advice on suitable glass substrates for different applications, including ITO coverslips. Substrates can be supplied fully dimensioned, profiled to customer’s requirements with chamfer’s, Radius, holes & cut outs as required utilising the latest glass processing techniques, substrates can also be polished to meet required optical and flatness requirements.
Diamond Coatings can offer both chemically and thermally toughened glass, other available enhancements include anti-glare finish and printed borders or graphics.
Diamond Coatings Glass & ITO Coverslips Substrates
Substrate options for ITO coated glass and ITO coverslips include:
Soda Lime including toughened options
Soda-lime glass is the type of glass, which is most widely used; its inexpensive processing costs make it the cheapest option. Soda-lime glass is formed by drawing the glass over molten tin baths. The air side (facing up) is typically flatter and smoother than the tin side. Diamond can supply Soda Lime glass either standard, thermally or chemically toughened and can be cut to a variety of sizes.
Borosilicate
Borosilicate glass is a low soda glass consisting primarily of the following, 70% silica, 10% boric oxide, 8% sodium oxide, 8% potassium oxide and 1% calcium oxide.
Although somewhat more difficult to make than traditional glass it is economical to produce because of its superior durability. Chemical & heat resistance properties are of excellent use in chemical laboratory, military uses and a variety of others. Borosilicate glass has a very low thermal expansion coefficient making it a popular material for flat TFT screens and other critical display equipment.
Optically, borosilicate glasses are crown glasses with low dispersion and relatively low refractive indices (1.51 – 1.54 across the visible range).
Fused Silica
Fused Quartz & fused silica are types of glass containing primarily silica in amorphous (non-crystalline) form. They are manufactured using several different processes. Fused Quartz is made by melting high purity naturally occurring quartz crystal at around 2000ºC using either an electrically heated furnace (electrically fused) or a gas/oxygen fuelled furnace (flame used).
Fused quartz is normally transparent. Fused Silica is produced using high purity silica sand as the feedstock, and is normally melted using an electric furnace, resulting in a material that is translucent or opaque, Fused Silica is often referred to as a higher standard fused Quartz. Both Fused Silica & Fused Quartz can be supplied in a variety of sizes and thickness; this material can also be supplied polished.
BK7
BK7 Glass is widely used in high transmission required displays; the standard optical performance of uncoated BK7 is on average 93%.
AR coatings can improve this transmission. BK7 is not a cheap material and is manufactured in block form and then cut to the desired thickness. The face of the two sides is then polished to the required dimensions.
