JPH0610346Y2 - Glasses lens with variable transmittance - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of use] The present invention relates to a spectacle lens having a variable transmittance using a lens having a transmission electrochromic element formed on the surface thereof.

[Prior Art] In many cases, sunglasses and fashion glasses are worn to protect the eyes or to dress.

In this case, in both cases, the transmittance of the spectacle lens is constant, and it becomes difficult to see when the surroundings are dark, and it is necessary to remove the spectacles, which is inconvenient.

Therefore, in order to change the transmittance, a planar transmissive EC device including at least a pair of transparent electrode layers and an electrochromic (hereinafter referred to as EC) layer sandwiched therebetween is used.
It was developed about a year ago.

This is characterized in that the EC layer can be colored and decolored by applying a voltage or a current between a pair of electrodes.

In other words, the transmittance of light passing through the EC element can be electrically controlled by coloring and erasing the EC layer.

A spectacle lens with variable transmittance (see FIG. 8) using a lens in which this EC element is formed on the surface of a lens substrate has already been proposed. See, for example, JP-A-52-54455, JP-A-54-54652, and JP-A-57-26822.

Here, as the EC substance, WO _{3 and} other inorganic substances,
Viologen and other organic substances are known.

FIG. 9 shows a simple drive circuit for the EC element.

Since it is necessary to supply and remove charges from the external power supply 11 to color the EC element, the external wiring 9 is connected to each electrode layer. Therefore, a region called an electrode lead-out portion is provided around each electrode layer.

In order to directly connect the external wiring 9 to the electrode lead-out portion, for example, a conductive adhesive may be used for bonding or direct soldering, but the adhesiveness is poor in any case.

Therefore, it has been proposed to use the pinching terminal 8 called a clip having a substantially U-shaped cross section as a connecting fitting (see, for example, JP-A-62-270925).

Then, the tip of the external wiring 9 is crimped or soldered to the clip terminal 8.

Here, since the transparent electrode has a relatively high resistance, it is better to have a large take-out portion in order to quickly transfer charges to and from it.
Therefore, it is preferable to provide the take-out portion around the entire periphery of the EC element.

Since the upper and lower electrode layers 2 and 6 each require a lead-out portion, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 11, the entire circumference of the peripheral portion 1a of the EC element is bisected at two points P ₁ and P _2. However, one is for the upper electrode layer and the other is for the lower electrode layer.

Even if a power source for driving the EC element, a circuit switch, etc. are provided anywhere in the frame, two wiring cords 9a for connecting the corresponding extraction parts of the left and right lenses to each other.
At least one (see FIG. 7) is required.

By the way, in a general spectacle frame as shown in FIG. 10, there is a bridge 14 connecting the left and right rims 13 for holding the lens in the center of the front 12, and when the spectacles are viewed from the front, the bridge 14 is It is above the center of the lens in the vertical direction, and in extreme cases, it is at the top edge of the lens.

Furthermore, the hinge 17 that connects the front 12 and the temple 16
And the rim 13 between the rim 13 and the rim 13 and adjacent to the side of the rim 13 are also generally located above the lens center.

Since the bridge 14 that connects the left and right rims 13 is unevenly distributed above the rim 13 from the center of the lens in this way, when the electrode lead-out portion is provided by dividing the lens peripheral portion into two equal parts (first
In FIG. 1), the wiring cord 9 up to each take-out portion is arranged inside the rim 13 in order to hide it from the outside, and the cord 9 requires a predetermined length.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] When the external wiring cord 9 is arranged inside the rim 13 as described above, it is necessary to make the rim 13 thick in order to conceal the cord 9. Will be a constraint of.

Further, as the cord 9 becomes longer, its electrical resistance becomes larger, and when a wiring configuration for transferring charges to and from the other lens via one lens is adopted as shown in FIG. 7, there is a voltage drop. Therefore, there is a problem in that the colors of the left and right lenses are not uniform.

In addition, due to manufacturing problems, the resistance values of the upper and lower transparent electrode layers 2 and 6 are different, and in particular, the resistance value of the upper electrode layer 6 is large, so the response of the coloring and decoloring is delayed and There is a problem that it is not constant.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, a transparent film having at least a three-layer structure of upper and lower transparent electrode layers and an electrochromic layer sandwiched between these two electrode layers is provided. Type electrochromic element is formed on the surface of the lens substrate, the transmittance of the spectacle lens is variable, and in order to apply a voltage from the outside to each transparent electrode layer in contact with a separate conductive member for voltage application. The pair of electrode take-out portions are divided into two parts, that is, the whole peripheral portion of the lens substrate, which is divided into two by dividing points P ₁ and P ₂ apart from each other. each extended, there is provided in a position corresponding to the bridge of the frame when at least one of the two points P ₁ and P _2, wherein the lens is incorporated in the frame

[Operation] In the present invention, _{one of} the two points P ₁ and P ₂ that divides the entire peripheral portion is determined, but there are several methods for determining the remaining one point.

For example, when the switch 10 and the power source 11 are arranged on the armor 15 and the temple 16 which are most easily accommodated, a wiring cord from them to the take-out portion is required (see FIG. 7), and the wiring cord should be shortened. For that purpose, it is preferable to bring the remaining one point to a position corresponding to the armoring.

Further, when the switch 10 and the power supply 11 are built in the bridge 14, no wiring cord is required on the remaining one point side.

Therefore, in this case, in principle, it is free to bring the remaining one point to any position.

However, as will be described later, the upper electrode layer generally has higher resistance than the lower electrode layer, and in that case, the remaining one point should be set so that the electrode lead-out portion of the higher resistance becomes longer. It is preferable to decide.

The EC element is planar and, as an example of a preferable thin film type structure, a four-layer structure such as electrode layer / EC layer / ion conductive layer / electrode layer, electrode layer / reduction coloring type EC layer / ion conductive layer Examples include a 5-layer structure such as layer / reversible electrolytic oxidation layer or oxidation coloring type EC layer / electrode layer. In this case, both electrode layers must be transparent.

Examples of the material for the transparent electrode include SnO ₂ and In
₂ O ₃ , ITO or the like is used. Such an electrode layer is generally formed by a vacuum thin film forming technique such as vacuum deposition, ion plating or sputtering. As the EC layer (reducing colorability), WO ₃ , M ₀ O ₃ or the like is generally used.

As the ion conductive layer, for example, silicon oxide, tantalum oxide, titanium oxide, aluminum oxide, niobium oxide, zirconium oxide, hafnium oxide, lanthanum oxide, magnesium fluoride or the like is used. These material thin films are insulators for electrons, but become good conductors for protons (H ⁺ ) and hydroxy ions (OH ⁻ ) depending on the manufacturing method. A cation is required for the coloring and erasing reaction of the EC layer, and it is necessary to incorporate H ⁺ ions and Li ⁺ ions into the EC layer and the like. The H ⁺ ion does not have to be an ion from the beginning, and it suffices that the H ⁺ ion is generated when a voltage is applied, and thus water may be contained instead of the H ⁺ ion. This water is very small and sufficient, and often water that naturally invades from the atmosphere will also fade.

Either of the EC layer and the ion conductive layer may be on the upper side or the lower side. Further, a reversible electrolytic oxidation layer, an oxidation coloring type EC layer, or a catalyst layer may be arranged with an ion conductive layer sandwiched between the EC layers. Examples of such a layer include iridium oxide or hydroxide, nickel, chromium, vanadium, ruthenium, rhodium and the like.

These substances may be dispersed in the ion conductive layer or the transparent electrode, or may be contained by dispersing their constituent substances.

When a voltage is applied to such an EC element, it is gradually colored or decolored, and the transmittance of the lens changes.

In addition, as always necessary in the case of a transmissive EC element, the electrode layer must be a transparent electrode. Also, E
The transparent electrode must have a resistance as low as possible in order to speed up the response of the C element to color fading. In particular, in a spectacle lens having a large display area, a transparent electrode layer having a lower resistance is preferable in view of the above characteristics.

When the EC element is formed on the lens, the lower electrode layer (substrate side) of the pair of electrode layers forms the electrode layer directly on the lens substrate. If the most common glass substrate is used as the substrate, the substrate can withstand high temperature (high temperature,
For example, since a film can be formed at 300 to 400 ° C.), a low resistance (generally 10 Ω / □ or less) transparent electrode layer can be obtained.

On the other hand, in the case of the upper electrode layer, E is already formed on the substrate.
The C layer and other layers are formed. If the upper electrode layer is heated to a high temperature for the purpose of reducing the resistance, the EC layer is exposed to the high temperature and is significantly deteriorated. In an extreme case, the EC element does not operate.

Therefore, if the upper transparent electrode layer is formed at a low temperature at which the EC layer does not deteriorate, it becomes a transparent electrode layer having a high resistance (generally 50Ω / □ or more), and the response of the EC element is inevitably delayed. When the EC element area is large like a spectacle lens, coloring starts from a part of the lens, and the colored portion gradually spreads, and eventually the entire coloring becomes uniform. Similarly, when erasing, the erasing starts from a part of the lens, and the erasing (colorless and transparent) part gradually spreads, and eventually the entire erasing occurs.

As a result, the surrounding environment became dark, and even if a color-erasing operation (application of a color-erasing voltage) was performed to erase the EC element in order to increase the transmittance of the lens, the entire surface would not be erased immediately. There is.

For example, if a driver who is driving a car wears sunglasses that have this type of lens, the surrounding environment gets dark inside the tunnel, so even if you try to increase the transmittance of the lens immediately Since the transmittance of the entire surface of the lens does not rise, the front side may not be clearly visible, which may be dangerous. Therefore, in the present invention, each electrode lead-out portion for externally applying a voltage to each of the pair (upper and lower) of the transparent electrode layers of the EC element is contacted with a separate conductive member for applying a voltage to the lens. For extending relatively wide resistance, such as a long conductive clip terminal, which is relatively low resistance. The perimeter of each electrode lead-out portion that is in contact with the conductive member over the entire area was maximized.

In the present invention, since the electrode lead-out portion is arranged as described above, the wiring cord 9 is connected to the position of the bridge of the frame and the electrode terminals 8a and b of the top side of the lens 1 and the ground side electrode lead-out portion 1a. Since the cords 9 and 9 are adjacent to each other, it is not necessary to dispose the cord 9 inside the rim, and the length of the wiring cord 9 connecting the left and right lenses 1 is minimized.

Therefore, it is not necessary to make the rim thicker for the purpose of holding the lens, and thus it is possible to design the frame so that a wearer who prefers a finer rim can support the rim.

Furthermore, the voltage drop in the wiring cord 9 is minimized, and even when the lenses are connected as shown in FIG. 7, uneven coloration reactions of the left and right lenses 1 are prevented, and a variable transmittance lens with fast response is provided. Has become.

In the present invention, when the peripheral portion 1a of the lens is divided at a position close to the bridge and the armature of the frame when the lens is incorporated in the frame, the entire peripheral portion 1a of the lens is rounded to the top of the lens. When divided into a side and a ground side, the peripheral length of the ground side taken-out portion becomes longer than the top side taken-out portion.

For this reason, the electrode clips 8a, 8b provided on the respective take-out parts
Since the contact area of each of the electrode layers is different, when the electrode lead-out portion of the high resistance upper electrode layer 6 of the electrode layers is set to the ground side, since the transfer of electric charges is performed more quickly, the response of color change / decoloration of the variable transmittance lens is Get faster

Contrary to the above, when the electrode lead-out portion of the high-resistance upper electrode layer 6 of the electrode layer is on the top side, the decoloring voltage is the EC
When applied to the element 7, decoloring starts from the electrode extraction portion 8a side of the upper electrode layer (high resistance side).

Here, since the position of the pupil when a person wears glasses is relatively close to the upper end of the glasses lens, if the erasing starts from the upside down direction of the glasses lens, the eyes of the wearer will feel. , The lens is erased immediately after starting the erasing operation,
The same effect is obtained as the transmittance is improved.

For this reason, after the spectacle wearer starts the erasing operation (increasing the transmittance), the vicinity of the lens wearer's pupil is immediately bleached, and the sensation of the wearer causes a response when the transmittance is changed. It has become possible to manufacture eyeglass lenses with variable transmittance.

Further, if the electrode lead-out part of the lens peripheral part is divided into two parts above and below the horizontal line at the position close to the top of the lens, the erasing change progresses from the upper part (top side) of the lens to the lower part (ground side). It will be a pair of glasses that can be changed by people without discomfort.

Further, in the present invention, each electrode lead-out portion of the pair of transparent electrode layers (upper and lower portions) of the EC element is divided into substantially the whole area of the top side portion and the whole area of the ground side portion which divides the entire peripheral portion of the lens into two parts. The peripheral length of each electrode lead-out portion was increased by extending the respective electrodes. As a result, it is possible to quickly transfer charges to and from the transparent electrode layers having a relatively high resistance from the external power source through the external wiring having a relatively low resistance, the conductive member, and the electrode lead-out portions, and the EC element can be turned on and off. The color response speed (response) could be further increased.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, at two points P ₁ and P ₂ close to the bridge 14 and the armor 15 of the frame, the entire peripheral portion of the lens is covered with the side portion extending over almost the entire area on the top side and the entire area on the ground side. It is divided into two peripheral parts including a side part that extends over.

In the case of producing the lens, first, as shown in FIG. 3, a mask vapor deposition is applied to the entire surface on the ground side slightly spaced from the line passing through P ₁ and P ₂ on the concave surface side of the lens substrate 1. A lower ITO transparent electrode layer 2 having a thickness of 2000 Å is formed.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, except for the peripheral portion 1a of the electrode layer 2, IrO ₂ having a thickness of 1200Å is formed on the electrode layer _2.
An oxidation-colored EC layer 3 made of a SnO ₂ mixture, a transparent ionic conductive layer 4 made of Ta ₂ O ₅ having a thickness of 5000Å on the EC layer 3, and similarly on the conductive layer 4. Reduction coloring type EC layer 5 composed of 5000 Å WO ₃
Are formed by vapor deposition, respectively.

Finally, as shown in FIG. 5, a thickness of 2000 Å is formed on the entire surface on the upper side of the horizontal line at a predetermined distance from the horizontal line and on the EC layer 5 excluding the peripheral portion 1a on the ground side. The upper ITO transparent electrode layer 6 is formed by vapor deposition.

The layers 2 to 6 may be formed by ion plating or sputtering instead of vacuum vapor deposition.

In this embodiment, the electrode lead-out portion of the lower electrode layer 2 is allocated to substantially the entire area on the ground side of the lens peripheral portion, and the electrode lead-out portion of the upper electrode layer 6 is allocated to the substantially entire area on the top side.

In order to make the connection between the electrode lead-out portion of the peripheral portion 1a and the external wiring cord 9 a low resistance connection structure extending in the longest possible peripheral length range, the cross section as shown in FIG. 6 is substantially U-shaped. The elongated clip terminals 8a and 8b are attached to both top and bottom extraction portions so as to be wound around the lens outer periphery, and external wiring cords 9a and 9b are soldered to the clips 8a and 8b, respectively. This state is shown in FIGS. 1 and 7.

The thus-produced variable transmittance lens of the present embodiment is framed in a frame as shown in FIG. 10, and a battery 11 (inside the bridge ... not shown) separately incorporated in the frame.
The switch 10 and the switch 10 (inside the armature, not shown) are wired as shown in FIG.

Here, the wiring cords 9a and 9b connecting the left and right lenses
Are buried inside the bridge 14 and the armor 15, and are completely hidden from the outside.

Since the connecting portions of the wiring cords 9a and 9b to the both electrode clips 8a and 8b are adjacent to the bridge 14 and the endowment 15, it is not necessary to dispose the wiring cord 9 on the inner surface of the rim, and the rim 13 becomes thick. Is prevented.

Further, the lengths of the wiring cords 9a and 9b themselves are the length of the bridge (the interval between the left and right rims) and the length from the rim to the switch (less than or equal to the size of the armor), which is the shortest.

Furthermore, since the electrode lead-out portion of the upper electrode layer 6 having a higher resistance of the electrode layers is arranged on the top side, when the switch 10 is operated to apply the electric charge to the EC element 7, the top side of the lens (upper side). That is, the color fading starts from the side closer to the clip 8a shown in FIGS. 1 (A) and (B), and the color fading gradually progresses toward the ground (lower part) of the lens, and eventually the entire lens becomes uniform. Colored and worn.

Here, as shown in FIG. 1 (B), the eye position of the spectacle wearer is usually on the upper side (above) of the center of the lens. The coloration and decoloration of the lens starts from the near part, and the change in coloring and decolorization is felt virtually quickly.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, when the entire peripheral portion 1a of the substantially annular lens is divided into two points P ₁ and P ₂ and divided into two parts, the one point is a bridge of the frame. Since the length of the external wiring cord to the electrode extraction part of the transparent electrode layer is short because the position is close to, the electrical resistance of the wiring is small, so that the coloration of the left and right lenses progresses at the same time and The erasing response is improved.

Further, since it is not necessary to hide the cord on the rim, it is not necessary to make the rim thicker than necessary, and there is also an effect that the degree of freedom in designing the spectacle frame when manufacturing spectacles using the lens is increased. Further, by extending each electrode lead-out portion over substantially the entire area of the top side portion that bisects the entire peripheral portion of the lens and substantially the entire area of the ground side portion, the peripheral length of each electrode lead-out portion is Has been increased,
It is possible to transfer charges from an external power source to a transparent electrode layer having a relatively high resistance through an external wire having a relatively low resistance, a conductive member, and each electrode lead-out portion quickly, and a response speed of coloration / decoloration of an EC element. (Response) can be further speeded up.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIGS. 1 and 3 to 5 show the state of a semi-finished product or a product in each step of manufacturing a spectacle lens according to an embodiment of the present invention, (A) is a schematic front view, (B) is a schematic longitudinal sectional view (XX section), FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of a lens substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view of a clip terminal also used in the lens. , FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing a state in which the left and right lenses are similarly wired, FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a conventional transmittance variable eyeglass lens, and FIG. 9 is a simple drive diagram of an EC element. is there. FIG. 10 is a schematic perspective view showing an example of a spectacle frame. FIG. 11 is a schematic front view of a conventional lens substrate. [Explanation of symbols of main parts] 1 ... Lens substrate, 1a ... Lens peripheral part, 2 ... Lower transparent electrode layer, 3 ... Oxidation coloring type EC layer, 4 ... Ion conductive layer, 5 ... Reduction coloring EC layer, 6 ... Upper transparent electrode layer, 7 ... EC element, 8a ... Conductive clip terminal (top side), 8b ... Conductive clip terminal (ground side), 9a.
Upper electrode lead-out side external wiring, 9b ... Lower electrode lead-out side external wiring, 10 ... Switch, 11 ... Power supply,
12 ... front, 13 ... rim, 14 ... bridge,
15 …… Yoroi, 16 …… Temple, 17 …… Clock, P
₁ , P ₂ …… A part that divides the lens periphery.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A transmissive electrochromic device having at least a three-layer structure of upper and lower transparent electrode layers and an electrochromic layer sandwiched between the two electrode layers is formed on a surface of a lens substrate. In the variable-spectrum spectacle lens, a pair of electrode lead-out portions for contacting with different conductive members for voltage application over the entire area to apply a voltage to the respective transparent electrode layers from outside are formed in a substantially annular shape of the lens substrate. The whole peripheral portion is divided into two dividing points P ₁ and P ₂ that are separated from each other, and extends to substantially the entire area of the top side portion and the approximately entire area of the ground side portion, and the two points P ₁ and P ₂ At least one of them is provided at a position corresponding to a bridge of the frame when the lens is incorporated into the frame, and a transmittance variable spectacle lens.