The concept of using surface structures in lieu of multilayer thin film coatings to control reflections from optical surfaces

Light reflecting from instrument panel and center console automobile displays is distracting to drivers and necessitates overhanging dashboard designs that take up valuable interior space. A recent trend toward displaying increasing amounts of information with navigation and communication systems, has compounded the significance of light reflection. The conventional anti-reflection (AR) technique of coating the display cover with thin-films to reduce reflections, has generally not been employed due to cost, lifetime, and performance issues such as poor viewing angle, durability, and adhesion loss. Diffuse textured surfaces are sometimes used at the expense of image clarity. TelAztec has addressed the reflection problem by incorporating micro-structured textures known as Motheye, directly into the window surface. The Motheye structure is an engineered surface texture that allows a gradual change in optical density as light travels from air into the display, resulting in minimal Fresnel reflection. In addition to performance that exceeds thin-film AR coatings, the primary advantage of exploiting Motheye surface textures is the ability to mass-produce product through the use of traditional plastic replication processes. Replication of tens of thousands of product parts from a single master results in a minimal increase in the production cost of the optical component.