A low-E coating supported by a glass substrate, the coating from the glass substrate outwardly including at least the following layers: a dielectric layer of or including silicon nitride; a high index layer having a refractive index of at least 2.1; another dielectric layer of or including silicon nitride; a layer comprising zinc oxide; an infrared (IR) reflecting layer, wherein the coating includes only one IR reflecting layer; and an overcoat including (i) a layer comprising tin oxide and (ii) a layer comprising silicon nitride located over and contacting the layer comprising tin oxide. An IG unit including the coating may have a visible transmission of at least 70%.

Methods and apparatus for reducing particles generated in a process carried out in a process chamber are provided herein. In some embodiments, a process kit shield includes: a body having a surface facing a processing volume of a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process chamber, wherein the body is composed of aluminum oxide (Al.sub.2O.sub.3); and a silicon nitride layer on the surface of the body.

There are provided coated articles that include two or more infrared (IR) reflecting layers (e.g., of or including NbZr, Nb, NiCr, NiCrMo, and/or a nitride thereof) sandwiched between at least dielectric layers, and/or a method of making the same. The coating may be designed so that the coated articles realize blue glass side reflective coloration in combination with a low glass side visible reflectance, acceptable film side coloration, and low solar factor (SF) and/or a low solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC). Such coated articles may be used in the context of monolithic windows, insulating glass (IG) window units, laminated windows, and/or other suitable applications, and may optionally be heat treated (e.g., thermally tempered) in certain instances.

There are provided coated articles that include two or more infrared (IR) reflecting layers (e.g., of or including NbZr, Nb, NiCr, NiCrMo, and/or a nitride thereof) sandwiched between at least dielectric layers, and/or a method of making the same. The coating may be designed so that the coated articles realize bronze glass side reflective coloration in combination with a low solar factor (SF) and/or a low solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC). Such coated articles may be used in the context of monolithic windows, insulating glass (IG) window units, laminated windows, and/or other suitable applications, and may optionally be heat treated (e.g., thermally tempered) in certain instances.

The present invention provides a liquid crystal display device and a manufacturing method thereof. The liquid crystal display device uses a quantum rod orientation layer (2) to conduct parallel alignment of a quantum rod layer (3) so that the aligned quantum rod layer (3) may replace a conventional lower polarizer. The liquid crystal display device manufacturing method applies an inclined vapor deposition process to form a quantum rod orientation layer (2). The quantum rod orientation layer (2) includes a plurality of grooves (21) that has an extension direction substantially perpendicular to a transmission axis direction of an upper polarizer (7). A quantum rod layer (3) is then formed on the quantum rod orientation layer (2). The quantum rod layer (3) so formed includes a plurality of quantum rods (31) that has a long axis direction substantially parallel to the extension direction of the grooves (21), namely parallel alignment of the quantum rod layer (3). The aligned quantum rod layer (3) may replace a conventional lower polarizer to improve light transmission rate and utilization of backlighting, increasing displaying brightness and reducing manufacturing cost.

A bottom lens for an immersion exposure tool includes a hydrophobic coating on the sidewalls of the bottom lens. A bottom portion of the bottom lens is not coated with the hydrophobic coating to maintain the optical performance of the bottom lens and to not distort a pattern that is to be transferred to a substrate. The hydrophobic coating may reduce the thermal instability of the bottom lens. This may reduce overlay variation during operation of the immersion exposure tool, which may increase manufacturing yield, decrease device failures, and/or decrease rework and repairs.

An orthopedic implant having a subsurface level ceramic layer generally includes a base material, an intermix layer molecularly integrated with the base material that includes a mixture of the base material and a plurality of subsurface level ceramic-based molecules implanted into the base material, and an integrated ceramic surface layer molecularly integrated with and extending from the intermix layer forming at least part of a molecular structure of an outer surface of the orthopedic implant. The integrated ceramic surface layer and the base material thereafter cooperate to sandwich the intermix layer in between.

The process for producing an orthopedic implant having an integrated ceramic surface layer includes steps for positioning the orthopedic implant inside a vacuum chamber, emitting a relatively high energy beam into the at least two different vaporized metalloid or transition metal atoms in the vacuum chamber to cause a collision therein to form ceramic molecules, and driving the ceramic molecules with the ion beam into an outer surface of the orthopedic implant at a relatively high energy such that the ceramic molecules implant therein and form at least a part of the molecular structure of the outer surface of the orthopedic implant, thereby forming the integrated ceramic surface layer.

A multilayer film structure, and method of making such a multilayer film structure, which includes a first layer consisting essentially of a first material and a second layer consisting essentially of a second material. In embodiments, the multilayer film structure includes a plurality of first layers alternating with a plurality of second layers. The layers are constructed by applying a N.sub.2-based reactive sputtering methodology so that the layers maintain a largely amorphous microstructure and a stable and high reflectivity upon annealing at temperatures up to 800° C. for 1 hour.

An interference filter includes a layers stack comprising a plurality of layers of at least: layers of amorphous hydrogenated silicon with added nitrogen (a-Si:H,N) and layers of one or more dielectric materials, such as SiO.sub.2, SiO.sub.x, SiO.sub.xN.sub.y, a dielectric material with a higher refractive index in the range 1.9 to 2.7 inclusive, or so forth. The interference filter is designed to have a passband center wavelength in the range 750-1000 nm inclusive. Added nitrogen in the a-Si:H,N layers provides improved transmission in the passband without a large decrease in refractive index observed in a-Si:H with comparable transmission. Layers of a dielectric material with a higher refractive index in the range 1.9 to 2.7 inclusive provide a smaller angle shift compared with a similar interference filter using SiO.sub.2 as the low index layers.