A coated article incudes a low-emissivity (low-E) coating having at least one infrared (IR) reflecting layer of or including a material such as silver or the like. The low-E coating is designed so that the coated article can realize a low U-value in combination with a high solar heat gain (g value). In the top dielectric portion of the coating above the silver, a high-low-high refractive index sequence is provided. This allows for a low U-value and a higher g value to be obtained for a given silver thickness. Coated articles herein may be used in the context of insulating glass (IG) window units, or in other suitable applications such as monolithic window applications, laminated windows, and/or the like.

Certain example embodiments relate to vending machines with large area transparent touch electrode (LATTE) technology, and/or associated methods. By using the low-E Ag-based coatings described herein, it is possible to create new vending machine user interfaces that are more interesting and interactive than conventional interfaces. Touch-based user interfaces may be useful in vending, attract, and game-playing modes into which example vending machines may be placed and under which they may be operated.

A coated article includes a coating, such as a low emissivity (low-E) coating, supported by a substrate (e.g., glass substrate). The coating includes at least one dielectric layer including tin oxide that is doped with another metal(s). The coating may also include one or more infrared (IR) reflecting layer(s) of or including material such as silver or the like, for reflecting at least some IR radiation. In certain example embodiments, the coated article may be heat treated (e.g., thermally tempered, heat bent and/or heat strengthened). Coated articles according to certain example embodiments of this invention may be used in the context of windows, including monolithic windows for buildings, IG windows for buildings, etc.

Low emissivity panels can include a separation layer of Zn.sub.2SnO.sub.x between multiple infrared reflective stacks. The low emissivity panels can also include NiNbTiO.sub.x as barrier layer. The low emissivity panels have high light to solar gain, color neutral, together with similar observable color before and after a heat treatment process.

A substrate is coated on one face with a thin-films stack having reflection properties in the infrared and/or in solar radiation including a single metallic functional layer, based on silver or on a metal alloy containing silver, and two antireflection coatings. The coatings each include at least one dielectric layer. The functional layer is positioned between the two antireflection coatings. At least one of the antireflection coatings includes an intermediate layer including zinc tin oxide Sn.sub.xZn.sub.yO.sub.z with a ratio of 0.1≦x/y≦2.4, with 0.75(2x+y)≦z≦0.95(2x+y) and having a physical thickness of between 2 nm and 25 nm, or even between 2 nm and 12 nm.

A low emissivity coating 30 includes a plurality of phase adjustment layers 40, 50, 62; a first metal functional layer 46; and a second metal functional layer 58 located over and spaced from the first metal functional layer 48. A ratio of the geometric thickness of the first metal functional layer divided by the geometric thickness of the second metal functional layer is in the range of 0.6 to 1. The low emissivity coating 30 provides a reference IGU summer/day SHGC of at least 0.4 and a reference IGU winter/night U factor of no greater than 0.4 BTU/hr-ft-° F. (2.27 W/m2-K).

A coated article is provided with at least one infrared (IR) reflecting layer. The IR reflecting layer may be of silver or the like. In certain example embodiments, a titanium oxide layer is provided over the IR reflecting layer, and it has been found that this surprisingly results in an IR reflecting layer with a lower specific resistivity (SR) thereby permitting thermal properties of the coated article to be improved.

A substrate is coated on one face with a thin-films stack having reflection properties in the infrared and/or in solar radiation including at least one metallic functional layer, based on silver or on a metal alloy containing silver, and at least two antireflection coatings. The coatings each include at least one dielectric layer. The functional layer is positioned between the two antireflection coatings. The stack also includes a terminal layer which is the layer of the stack which is furthest from the face. The terminal layer is a metallic layer consisting of zinc and tin, made of Sn.sub.xZn.sub.y with a ratio of 0.1≦x/y≦2.4 and having a physical thickness of between 0.5 nm and 5.0 nm excluding these values, or even between 0.6 nm and 2.7 nm excluding these values.

Absorbing layers of a low-emissivity (low-E) coating are designed to cause the coating to have a reduced film side reflectance which is advantageous for aesthetic purposes. In certain embodiments, the absorbing layers are metallic or substantially metallic (e.g., NiCr or NiCrN.sub.x) and are positioned in order to reduce or prevent oxidation of the absorbing layers during optional heat treatment (e.g., thermal tempering, heat bending, and/or heat strengthening). Coated articles according to certain example embodiments of this invention may be used in the context of insulating glass (IG) window units, other types of windows, etc.

The invention relates to a technique of manufacturing a coated substrate (102) such as glass (104) carrying a conductive layer (112) such as a metal layer to be tempered after deposition. A system (100) for manufacturing the coated substrate (102) may comprise a sputtering configuration (120) adapted for depositing the conductive layer (112) on the substrate (104). A pulse laser (132) is adapted for irradiating the conductive layer (112) with laser pulses (136). The pulse laser (132) is adapted for laser pulses (136) with a pulse duration below one microsecond.