M. Kanungo, W. Senaratne, S. Li, M. Quesada
Corning, Inc.,
United States
Keywords: glass, photonic materials
Summary:
All glass, lenticular lens array, light guide substrates were fabricated in a single mask and etch procedure enabling 1D local light-confinement from an edge-injected LED array. Lenticular structures of sufficient resolution (width & pitch: 100–200 µm) were etched along the length of the thin-slab glass surface, at depths in the range 40–90 µm using an etchant optimized for the alkali-borosilicate composition. In addition, more functionalities were added to Glass Light Guide Plates (GLPG) by fabricating light extraction features along with 1D dimming structures by a single step mask and etch process. The proposed approach enables brightness uniformity and local dimming optics on GLGPs. All-glass-based LGPs are inherently more environmentally stable, more mechanically reliable, contains lower color shift, and are of comparable process cost to conventional inkjet or screen-printed extraction patterns on LGPs or micro replicated lenticular features on GLPs.