JP2505006Y2 - Electrochromic device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial application] The present invention relates to an improvement of an electrochromic device.

[Conventional technology]

The phenomenon in which a reversible electrolytic oxidation or reduction reaction occurs when a voltage is applied to cause reversible coloring is called electrochromism. By using an electrochromic (hereinafter abbreviated as EC) substance that exhibits such a phenomenon, an EC element that is colored and decolored by voltage operation is made, and this EC element is used as a light amount control element (for example, an antiglare mirror or a dimming lens). ) And 7 segments have been used for more than 20 years. For example, there is an EC element (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-46098) in which a transparent electrode film (cathode), a tungsten trioxide thin film, an insulating film such as silicon dioxide, and an electrode film (anode) are sequentially laminated on a glass substrate. It is known as an all-solid-state EC device. When a voltage is applied to this EC element, the tungsten trioxide (WO ₃ ) thin film is colored blue. After that, when a reverse voltage is applied to this EC element, the blue color of the WO ₃ thin film disappears and becomes colorless. Although the mechanism of coloring / decoloring has not been clarified in detail, a small amount of water contained in the WO ₃ thin film and the insulating film (ion conductive layer) causes the coloring / discoloration of the WO ₃ thin film.
It is understood that it controls erasing.

By the way, at least one of the pair of electrode layers sandwiching the EC layer directly or indirectly must be transparent in order to show the color of the EC layer to the outside. Both must be transparent, especially for transmissive EC devices. Currently, transparent electrode materials include SnO ₂ , In ₂ O ₃ and ITO (SnO ₂ and In ₂ O
₃ ), ZnO, etc. are known, but these materials have to be thin due to their relatively poor transparency, and for this reason and other reasons, EC devices are used for substrates such as glass plates and plastic plates. It is usually formed on top.

In order to supply an external power source to such an EC element, it is necessary to take out an electrode portion from each of the pair of electrode layers.
Since it is necessary to increase the display area of the element, the above-mentioned extraction electrode portion is provided on both end surfaces of the substrate, and an EC element is disclosed in JP-A-61-270735.

However, according to this publication, the extraction electrode portion of the EC element is
It is made of transparent electrode material (ITO), and this material has high electrical resistance, so external wiring is connected to this by soldering or other means. However, there is a problem in that the coloring and decoloring occurs near the extraction electrode portion, which is unsightly.

After that, an improved invention for solving the above problems was made, a low resistance conductive thin film was attached to the extraction electrode portion located at the end face of the substrate, and external wiring was connected to this conductive thin film, JP-A-63-38923 has proposed an EC device in which the charge or electron supply speed is increased by the low resistance of the above to improve the responsiveness of coloration / decoloration.

An example of this publication is shown in FIG. 2, and the configuration will be described below.

On the concave surface of the lens substrate 1 in FIG. 2, a first transparent electrode layer 2 (ITO), a reversible electrolytic oxidation layer 3 (for example, iridium oxide or iridium hydroxide), an ion conductive layer 4, a reduction coloring EC layer 5 are formed.
An EC element including (for example, WO ₃ ) and the second transparent electrode layer 6 (ITO) is provided. This element has a sealing resin 7
It is sealed by the lens sealing substrate 8 via (for example, epoxy resin). The lead-out electrode portions 2a and 6a of the electrode layers 2 and 6 are formed on both end faces 1a and 1b of the lens substrate 1, and these lead-out electrode portions 2a and 6a are made of a copper / aluminum two-layer film. The low resistance conductive thin films 9a and 9b are attached. External wiring La, Lb is formed on the conductive thin films 9a, 9b.
When the electric charges or electrons from the external power source S are supplied through the external wirings La and Lb, the thin films 9a and 9b have low resistance as described above, and thus the supply becomes faster and the coloration / erasing The responsiveness can be improved.

[Problems to be solved by the device]

However, since the substrate 1 is relatively thin in practice, the second
The widths of the end faces 1a, 1b along the substantially vertical direction shown in the figure are narrow, and the regions of the conductive thin films 9a, 9b formed on the end faces are also narrow. Therefore, the external wiring La, Lb is a conductive thin film 9 with a narrow width.
There is a problem that it becomes difficult to connect to a and 9b.

Therefore, the invention of the present application has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an EC element in which external wiring can be easily connected.

[Means for solving the problem]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, the electrochromic device (2-6) formed on the device substrate (1) is sealed with a sealing substrate (8) through a sealing resin (7) according to FIG. ), And an electrochromic element in which the extraction electrode portions (2a, 6a) of the elements (2 to 6) are provided on both end surfaces of the element substrate (1), the sealing resin (7) is used. It is a technical point that low resistance conductive thin films (10a, 10b) are attached from the extraction electrode portions (2a, 6a) on both end surfaces to the end surfaces of the sealing substrate (8).

[Action]

Therefore, since the region of the conductive thin film (10a, 10b) is expanded, the external wiring (La, Lb) can be easily connected to the thin film (10a, 10b).

Further, the sealing resin (7) is easily deteriorated by moisture, but the conductive thin film (10a, 10a, The thin film (10a, 10b) protects the encapsulating resin (7) even in the hot water immersion test and the salt spray test because the 10b) is attached, and the encapsulating resin (7) is deteriorated. There is no such thing.

As described above, as a configuration for expanding the region connected to the external wiring (La, Lb), as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 63-4524, a conductive clip having a high portion connected to the sealing resin is used. There is also an example in which a conductive clip is attached to the end electrode portion provided on the end portion on the surface of the element substrate while the conductive clip is attached to the end portion. So as not to damage
There is a drawback that the display area is reduced because the attachment to the edge of the substrate must be done carefully and a part of the clip is connected to the surface of the substrate. On the other hand, in the present invention, the conductive thin film (10a, 10b) is provided on the substrate (1).
Since it is attached to the end face side of the substrate, the extraction electrode portions (2a, 6a) are not damaged by the elastic force of the clip, and there is an advantage that the display area on the substrate (1) is wide.

The laminated structure of the ECD in the present invention is not particularly limited, but the structure of the solid-state EC element is, for example, 4 layers such as electrode layer / EC layer / ion conductive layer / electrode layer.
A five-layer structure such as a layer structure, electrode layer / reducing coloring type EC layer / ion conductive layer / reversible electrolytic oxidation layer or oxidation coloring type EC layer / electrode layer can be mentioned.

As the material of the transparent electrode, for example, SnO ₂ , 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. (Reducing colorability) As the EC layer, WO ₃ , WoO 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 film is an insulator for electrons by the production method, a proton (H ⁺⁾ and hydroxy ions ^- a good conductor for (OH).

Cations are required for the color-erasing reaction of the EC layer, and H ⁺ ions and Li ⁺ ions must be contained in the EC layer and others. H
^{The +} ion does not have to be an ion from the beginning, and H ⁺ ion may be 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 enters 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 (or an oxidation coloring type EC layer) or a catalyst layer may be arranged with an ion conductive layer interposed 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 dispersed therein. The opaque electrode layer may also serve as the reflection layer, and for example, a metal such as gold, silver, aluminum, chromium, tin, zinc, nickel, ruthenium, rhodium, stainless steel is used.

 Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a photochromic lens having an EC element according to an embodiment of the present invention. First, on the lens substrate 1 in the figure, a thickness of 20 is formed on the other part of the substrate 1 excluding a part (on the right side in the drawing) by a vacuum deposition method or an ion plating method.
The ITO electrode layer 2 of 0 nm was formed. At this time, due to the wraparound phenomenon, the extraction electrode portion 2a of the electrode layer 2 was also formed on the left end surface shown in the figure from the other portion on the substrate 1.

After that, an iridium oxide (in the form of a mixture with tin oxide) layer 3, a tantalum oxide layer 4 and a WO ₃ layer 5 were sequentially formed. The thickness of each layer 3-5 is about 150, 500, 500n in the order of formation.
m. Next, an ITO electrode layer 6 having a thickness of 200 nm including the extraction electrode portion 6a was formed from the upper surface of the WO ₃ layer 5 to the right end surface of the figure through the end surface and the part of the substrate 1.

The upper surface is sealed with epoxy resin 7, and a sealing substrate 8 made of a lens is adhered and sealed, and then the lens substrate 1
Masking agent (not shown) on the convex surface (the lower surface in the figure) and the concave surface (the upper surface in the figure) of the sealing substrate 8, and then removing the electrodes 2a and 6a from the electrode portions 2a and 6a via the epoxy resin 7 respectively. Aluminum having a thickness of 50 μm and copper having a thickness of 100 μm were sequentially deposited on the end faces by a wet method, and the conductive thin films 10a and 10b having a two-layer structure were formed by the deposition.
The electric resistance of the copper / aluminum two-layer film was so small that it could be ignored.

In order to remove the unnecessary portion of the thin film attached on the mask agent, the mask agent is peeled off from the convex surface of the lens substrate 1 and the concave surface of the sealing substrate 8, whereby the EC device shown in FIG. Was completed.

Conductive thin films 10a, 1 formed on the end surface side of the lens substrate 1.
When the external wiring La and Lb are soldered to each of 0b and the coloring voltage (+ 1.35V) is applied from the driving power source (S), the transmittance is 20 with respect to the light with the wavelength of 633 nm when it is incident from the lens substrate 1 side. % (After 10 seconds), the transmittance was maintained for a while even when the voltage application was stopped. This time, the erasing voltage (-1.
Applying 35V), the transmittance also recovered to 70% (1
0 seconds later).

According to the present embodiment described above, the lens of the spectacles is used as the element substrate 1 and the sealing substrate 8, but the present invention is not limited to this, and a glass substrate is used instead of the above lens to form the same as in FIG. Needless to say, the above-mentioned object can be obtained by this.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, since the area of the conductive thin film is expanded, it can be easily connected to the external wiring, and since the thin film protects the sealing resin, it can be sealed by hot water immersion and salt spray test. The resin does not deteriorate.

Furthermore, since the present invention does not use the conductive clip, the extraction electrode portion is not damaged by the elastic force of the clip, and the display area on the substrate is widened.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a photochromic lens having an EC element according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a photochromic lens in which an EC element is formed according to the related art. 1 ... Element substrate (lens of spectacles) 2, 6 ... Transparent electrode layers 2a, 6a ... Extraction electrode part 3 ... Reversible electrolytic oxidation layer 4 ... Ion conductive layer 5 ... Reduction coloring EC layer 7 ... Encapsulation resin 8 Encapsulation substrate (glass lens) 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b ... Low resistance conductive thin film La, Lb ... External wiring S ... External power supply

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An electrochromic device in which an electrochromic device formed on a device substrate is sealed by a sealing substrate with a sealing resin interposed therebetween, and lead-out electrode portions of the device are provided on both end faces of the device substrate. An electrochromic device is characterized in that low resistance conductive thin films are respectively attached from the extraction electrode portions on both end faces to both end faces of the sealing substrate via the sealing resin.