A vacuum insulating panel comprising: a first glass substrate; a second glass substrate; a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second glass substrates, wherein the gap is at pressure less than atmospheric pressure; a seal provided at least partially between at least the first and second substrates; and wherein at least one of the glass substrates is tempered, has compressive stress at a center of the glass substrate as viewed from above in a surface compression region of at least about 10,000 psi, and has one, two, or all three of: (i) a compressive stress proximate an edge of the glass substrate as viewed from above in the surface compression region of at least about 10,000 psi, (ii) tension stress at the center of the glass as viewed from above in the central tension region of at least about 5,800 psi, and/or (iii) compressive stress proximate a corner of the glass substrate as viewed from above in the surface compression region of at least about 10,000 psi.

A vacuum insulating panel may include a first substrate; a second substrate; a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second substrates, wherein the gap is at a pressure less than atmospheric pressure; a seal provided between at least the first and second substrates, the seal including a first seal layer, a second seal layer, and a third seal layer, wherein the first seal layer may be located between at least the second and third seal layers; wherein, for at least one location of the seal, the first seal layer has a first thickness, the second seal layer has a second thickness, and the third seal layer has a third thickness; and wherein the first thickness may be greater than the second thickness and less than the third thickness.

A vacuum insulating panel includes first and second substrates (e.g., glass substrates), a hermetic edge seal, a pump-out port, and spacers sandwiched between at least the two substrates. The gap between the substrates may be at a pressure less than atmospheric pressure to provide insulating properties. The vacuum insulating panel may include a multi-layer edge seal structure, including at least one layer including boron oxide (e.g., B.sub.2O.sub.3 or any other stoichiometry).

A vacuum insulating panel may include: a first substrate; a second substrate; a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second substrates, wherein the gap is at a pressure less than atmospheric pressure; a seal provided between at least the first and second substrates, the seal including a first seal layer and a second seal layer, wherein, for at least one location of the seal, the first seal layer has a first width and the second seal layer has a second width, wherein the first width of the first seal layer may be from about 2-20 mm, more preferably from about 3-10 mm, and possibly from about 4-8 mm.

A vacuum insulating panel may include: a first glass substrate; a second glass substrate; a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second substrates, wherein the gap is at a pressure less than atmospheric pressure; a seal provided between at least the first and second substrates, the seal including a first ceramic seal layer and a second ceramic seal layer, wherein the second ceramic seal layer is located between at least the first ceramic seal layer and the first glass substrate; and wherein one or more of: (i) a thermal (TC) conductivity of the first ceramic seal layer is be less than a thermal conductivity of the first glass substrate, and wherein the thermal conductivity of the first glass substrate is less than a thermal conductivity of the second ceramic seal layer, so that the thermal conductivity of the second ceramic seal layer is greater than the thermal conductivity of the first substrate and greater than the thermal conductivity of the first ceramic seal layer; (ii) a thermal conductivity of the second ceramic seal layer is greater than a thermal conductivity of the first ceramic seal layer; and/or (iii) a ratio TDp1/TDg, where TDp1 represents a thermal diffusivity (TD) of the second ceramic seal layer and TDg represents a thermal diffusivity of the first glass substrate, is at least 1.020 and wherein the thermal diffusivity of the second ceramic seal layer is greater than a thermal diffusivity of the first ceramic seal layer.

A vacuum insulating panel includes may include: a first substrate; a second substrate; a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second substrates, wherein the gap is at a pressure less than atmospheric pressure; a seal provided between at least the first and second substrates, the seal comprising a first seal layer and/or a second seal layer; and wherein the first seal layer may include from about 20-80 wt. % tellurium oxide, the tellurium oxide comprising TeO.sub.4 and TeO.sub.3, and wherein the first seal layer comprises more TeO.sub.3 than TeO.sub.4 by wt. %.

A method of making a vacuum insulating panel, where the vacuum insulating panel may include a first glass substrate, a second glass substrate, a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second glass substrates, and a seal provided between at least the first and second glass substrates, the seal including a first seal layer and/or a second seal layer. The method may include at least one of: providing first seal material for the first seal layer at a location between at least the first and second glass substrates; pre-heating the glass substrates, the first seal material, and the second seal layer; wherein said pre-heating may cause at least one of (a) at least one of the glass substrates, (b) the second seal layer, and/or (c) the first seal material, to reach a pre-heat temperature; wherein the pre-heat temperature may be from about 40-120 degrees C. less than a melting point (Tm) of the first seal material, from about 150-450 degrees less than a melting point (Tm) of the second seal material, and/or within about 70 degrees C. of a softening point (Ts) of the first seal material; after said pre-heating, laser heating the first seal material in order to fire and/or sinter the first seal material and form the first seal layer in a manner so that the first seal layer may have a density of from about 2.8-4.0 g/cm.sup.3; and after forming the first seal layer, evacuating the gap to a pressure less than atmospheric pressure.

A method of making a vacuum insulating panel, where the vacuum insulating panel may include a first glass substrate, a second glass substrate, a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second glass substrates, and a seal provided at least partially between at least the first and second glass substrates, wherein the seal may comprise a first seal layer and/or a second seal layer. The method may include at least one of: providing first seal material for the first seal layer at a location at least partially between at least the first and second glass substrates; pre-heating so as to cause at least one of (a) at least one of the glass substrates, (b) the second seal layer, and/or (c) the first seal material, to reach a pre-heat temperature; after said pre-heating, laser heating the first seal material in order to fire and/or sinter the first seal material and form the first seal layer in a manner so that the first seal layer may have a density of from about 2.8-4.0 g/cm.sup.3, wherein said laser heating may cause at least one of the first seal material and/or the second seal layer to reach a temperature above the melting point (Tm) of the first seal material for no more than about 5 seconds; and after forming the first seal layer, evacuating the gap to a pressure less than atmospheric pressure.

A method of making a vacuum insulating panel, the vacuum insulating panel including a first glass substrate, a second glass substrate, a plurality of spacers provided in a gap between at least the first and second glass substrates, and a seal provided between at least the first and second glass substrates, the seal comprising a first seal layer. The method may include: providing first seal material for the first seal layer in a location at least partially between at least the first and second glass substrates; laser heating, using a laser beam from a continuous wave near-IR laser, the first seal material in order to form the first seal layer; wherein said laser heating may comprise using the laser beam, having a size of from about 2-15 mm, so that the laser beam at least partially passes through at least one of the glass substrates to fire and/or sinter the first seal material thereby forming the first seal layer, in a manner so that the first seal layer a density of from about 2.8-4.0 g/cm.sup.3; and after forming the first seal layer, evacuating the gap to a pressure less than atmospheric pressure.

The present invention provides a low-alkali or alkali-free glass for laser processing, the glass reducing occurrence of laser irradiation-induced cracks and allowing formation of circular through holes. The present invention relates to the glass for laser processing, the glass having a glass composition including, in mol %: 45.0%SiO.sub.270.0%; 2.0%B.sub.2O.sub.320.0%; 3.0%Al.sub.2O.sub.320.0%; 0%ZnO9.0%; and (I) 0.1%CuO2.0% and 0%TiO.sub.215.0%; or (II) 0.1%TiO.sub.2<5.0% and 0%CuO<0.1%, wherein, in the case of (II), a metal oxide serving as a coloring component is further included, a relationship of 0Li.sub.2O+Na.sub.2O+K.sub.2O<2.0% is satisfied, either of principal surfaces of the glass has a layer containing fine particles, and the fine particles have an average particle diameter of 10 nm or more and less than 1.0 m.