LAMINATED GLASS PANE COMPRISING AN ELECTRONIC FUNCTIONAL MODULE

Abstract

A laminated glass pane includes two glass or polymer panes and at least one connecting polymer film or connecting laminate adhesively bonded therebetween, wherein a cut-out in the connecting polymer film or in the connecting laminate is provided in a partial surface area of the laminated glass pane, and an electronic functional module that has a thickness smaller than the thickness of the connecting polymer film or the connecting laminate is accommodated in the cut-out, wherein the functional module has an electronic functional element that is fixed on a separate thin carrier polymer film on one of the glass or polymer panes, wherein an antenna and/or conductor structure that has a spiral or polygonal-spiral conductor path that surrounds the functional element is printed onto the carrier polymer film.

Claims

1. A laminated glass pane comprising two glass or polymer panes and at least one connecting polymer film or connecting laminate adhesively bonded therebetween, wherein a cut-out in the connecting polymer film or in the connecting laminate is provided in a partial surface area of the laminated glass pane, and an electronic functional module that has a thickness smaller than or equal to a thickness of the connecting polymer film or the connecting laminate is accommodated in the cut-out, wherein the electronic functional module has an electronic functional element that is fixed on a separate thin carrier polymer film on one of the two glass or polymer panes, wherein the electronic functional element is arranged on the carrier polymer film together with an antenna and/or conductor structure that comprises closely adjacent conductor paths, wherein the antenna and/or conductor structure is printed onto the carrier polymer film, wherein the antenna and/or conductor structure has a spiral or polygonal-spiral conductor path that surrounds the electronic functional element.

2. The laminated glass pane according to claim 1, wherein the electronic functional element and the antenna and/or conductor structure are arranged completely within the cut-out.

3. The laminated glass pane according to claim 1, wherein the electronic functional element has a greater thickness than the antenna and/or conductor structure.

4. The laminated glass pane according to claim 1, wherein the carrier polymer film is attached directly to said glass or polymer pane.

5. The laminated glass pane according to claim 1, wherein a thin protective polymer film is arranged in the cut-out between the electronic functional element and another one of the two glass or polymer panes.

6. The laminated glass pane according to claim 1, wherein the electronic functional element is implemented as a moisture sensor, a light sensor, a temperature sensor, an actuator, an electronic processing or switching unit, an LCD display unit, and/or an LED display unit.

7. The laminated glass pane according to claim 6, wherein the electronic functional element is implemented as a temperature sensor and wherein the antenna and/or conductor structure is an antenna.

8. The laminated glass pane according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the connecting polymer film or the connecting laminate and the electronic functional module is less than 1.2 mm.

9. The laminated glass pane according to claim 1, wherein the carrier polymer film is applied at edges of the cut-out overlapping with the connecting polymer film.

10. The laminated glass pane according to claim 1, wherein the cut-out has an area proportion of less than 10% of an area of the laminated glass pane.

11. A vehicle comprising at least one laminated glass pane according to claim 1.

12. A method for producing a laminated glass pane according to claim 1, comprising: providing a first and second glass or polymer pane, providing a connecting polymer film or a connecting laminate for bonding the first and second glass or polymer pane, having a cut-out provided therein, providing an electronic functional element on a thin carrier polymer film as an electronic functional module, whose shape matches a shape of the cut-out in the connecting polymer film or the connecting laminate and whose thickness is smaller than a thickness of the connecting polymer film or the connecting laminate, wherein an antenna and/or conductor structure that comprises closely adjacent conductor paths is printed onto the carrier polymer film, which has a spiral or polygonal-spiral conductor path that surrounds the electronic functional element, placing the electronic functional element with the underlying carrier polymer film on a surface of the first or second glass or polymer pane, adhering the connecting polymer film or the connecting laminate on the same surface of the first or second glass or polymer pane, and laminating the composite with the second glass or polymer pane placed thereon to complete the laminated glass pane.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein after placing the electronic functional element with the underlying carrier polymer film on a surface of the first or second glass or polymer pane and adhering the connecting polymer film or the connecting laminate the method further comprises covering the electronic functional element with a thin protective polymer film.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein the laminating of the composite is carried out at a temperature of less than 120° C.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein the laminating is done at a reduced pressure over a period of 2 hours to 20 hours without using an autoclave.

16. The laminated glass pane according to claim 1, wherein the separate thin carrier polymer film has a thickness in the range between 30 and 70 μm.

17. The laminated glass pane according to claim 5, wherein the thin protective polymer film has a thickness in the range between 30 and 70 μm.

18. The laminated glass pane according to claim 5, wherein the thin protective polymer film is attached directly to the other one of the two glass or polymer panes.

19. The laminated glass pane according to claim 8, wherein the thickness of the connecting polymer film or the connecting laminate and the electronic functional module is in the range between 0.6 mm and 1.0 mm.

20. The method according to claim 14, wherein the laminating of the composite is carried out at a temperature of less than 100° C.

Description

[0035] Advantages and practicalities of the invention are also evident from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the figures. They depict:

[0036] FIGS. 1a and 1b schematic representations (plan view and sectional view) of an exemplary embodiment of the invention,

[0037] FIGS. 2a and 2b detailed views (plan view and sectional view) of the arrangement of FIGS. 1a and 1b, and

[0038] FIG. 3 a schematic representation to explain the method according to the invention.

[0039] FIG. 1a schematically depicts a plan view of a laminated glass pane 1 as a passenger car windshield in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 1b depicts a sectional view of the same, along a sectional plane A-A. The windshield 1 is formed as a laminated glass pane with a first and second glass pane 1a, 1b and a polymer film 1c bonded between the glass panes. In a region near the upper edge of the windshield, a cut-out 1d is provided in the polymer film 1c, in which cut-out an electronic functional module 2 is inserted between the first and second glass pane 1a, 1b.

[0040] FIGS. 2a and 2b depict an embodiment of the electronic functional module 2, in which an antenna line 2b running spirally in a square basic shape is printed on a thin carrier polymer film 2a (PVB) with a thickness of approx. 50 μm by means of a printing process in such away that it surrounds a temperature sensor 2c placed in the center on all sides. The conductor path of the antenna line 2b can be formed from a conductive paste or ink by a printing process known per se for these purposes, and the temperature sensor 2c is, in particular, connected to the antenna line by means of conductive adhesive dots.

[0041] FIG. 2b shows how this electronic functional module 2 is inserted into the cut-out 1d of the laminated glass pane 1. It can be seen that, here, the connecting film between the first and second glass pane 1a, 1b is a two-layer laminate 1c made of two different PVB films that differ in their physical properties and, as a laminate, provide optimum property compensation as an intermediate layer of the laminated glass pane.

[0042] It can further be seen that the thin PVB carrier film 2a of the functional module 2 extends below the connecting laminate 1c on all sides at the edges of the cut-out 1d. The overlapping region can expediently be from 2 to 3 mm. It can also be seen that there is a distance between the outermost section of the antenna line 2b and the perimeter of the cut-out 1d, which distance can usefully be in the range between 2 and 5 mm.

[0043] Above the functional module, a thin PVB protective film 2d is arranged on the underside of the second glass pane 1b. Here, this is also implemented to overlap with the connecting laminate 1c, but this is not essential to the invention. Since the protective polymer film 2d serves to protect the temperature sensor 2c, a dimension with which its surfaces, but not the antenna line, are covered would also suffice.

[0044] FIG. 3 schematically depicts essential steps in the production of the laminated glass pane depicted in FIG. 1.

[0045] In a step S1, a thin PVB carrier film 2a and an electronic functional element 2c (such as the aforementioned temperature sensor) are provided. In a second step, the carrier polymer film 2a is provided with a conductor structure 2b (such as the aforementioned antenna line) by a suitable printing method (e.g., screen printing or inkjet), and in a step S3, the functional unit 2c is applied on the carrier polymer film 2a, fixed there, and electrically connected to the conductor structure. Thus, the electronic functional module 2 is ready to be installed.

[0046] Subsequently, in a step S4, the electronic functional module 2 is applied to a predetermined mounting location on a first glass pane 1a provided in advance. Following that, a protective polymer film (not shown) or even a protective elastomer layer can be applied to the functional module.

[0047] In a step S5, a PVB connecting film 1c′ cut to size externally in advance is provided with a cut-out 1d adapted to the lateral dimensions and the mounting position of the electronic functional module 2, yielding the preconfigured PVB connecting film 1c, as shown in FIG. 1.

[0048] In a first step S6 of a so-called “in-line process”, the configured PVB connecting film 1c is applied on the first glass pane 1a, and in a subsequent step S7, the second glass pane 1b is placed on top, and the stack is laminated in the usual manner to form the laminated glass panel 1.

[0049] In this lamination procedure, the sufficiently sized cut-out 1d in the PVB connecting film 1c, in conjunction with the use of the thin PVB carrier film of the functional module 2 within this cut-out, ensures that flowing of the PVB connecting film does not result in mechanical interference with the functional module and, in particular, with their conductor structure. Their full ability to perform and their unrestricted reliability are thus ensured by the present invention.

[0050] Tests

[0051] Various tests were performed. The observations made are presented in the following. [0052] The use of a connecting polymer film or a connecting laminate 1c with a thickness that was less than the thickness of the functional module resulted in glass breakage during lamination. This was successfully avoided by using a connecting polymer film or a connecting laminate 1c with a thickness greater than or equal to the thickness of the functional module. [0053] In the case of lamination in an autoclave at 12 bar and 130° C. over a period of one hour, it was observed that the conductor structures are sometimes deformed. This was successfully avoided by carrying out the lamination without an autoclave under vacuum at a temperature of, for example, 90° C. This required longer lamination times of at least 2 hours. [0054] When the cut-out 1d of the connecting polymer film or the connecting laminate 1c was selected so small that it included the functional element but not the conductor structure, it was sometimes observed that the conductor structure was deformed. The inventors attributed this effect to entrapped air. This was successfully avoided by arranging both the functional element and the conductor structure completely within the cut-out 1d. [0055] The use of a protective polymer film 2d resulted in improved aesthetics. In particular, the edges of the carrier polymer film were less clearly visible.

[0056] The implementation of the invention is not restricted to the example explained above, but is also possible in a large number of variants that are within the scope of the attached claims.

LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS

[0057] 1 laminated glass pane

[0058] 1a, 1b first and second glass pane

[0059] 1c connecting polymer film (PVB film) or connecting laminate

[0060] 1c′ unconfigured connecting polymer film

[0061] 1d cut-out in the polymer film

[0062] 2 electronic functional module

[0063] 2a carrier polymer film

[0064] 2b conductor structure (antenna line)

[0065] 2c functional element (temperature sensor)

[0066] 2d protective polymer film