A glass conducting screen, a transparent TV or smart glasses: recent advances in transparent electronics and adaptive optics have made the dream a reality, turning science fiction into industrial innovation.

With the construction of a patented prototype of a metallic conducting mesh on a transparent support, Toulouse research teams and the SATT TTT have added a brick to the construction of the Industry 4.0 edifice.

A process to turn transparent substrates into conductors

The Chimie Balard Cirimat Carnot Institut and the LAAS have developed a laser process to directly deposit conducting micrometer-sized metallic wires on transparent substrates. This innovative process led to the filing of a patent by Toulouse Tech Transfer in the name of the CNRS and Paul Sabatier University.

Toulouse Tech Transfer (TTT), the acceleration and technology transfer society (SATT for the French acronym) of the Toulouse higher education office, is the regional operator for the dissemination and transfer of technology from public research laboratories towards business.

From the process to the prototype: an invisible network of conducting metallic wires

The SATT TTT, which oversees the entire maturation process of technological innovation, decided to invest in the construction of a prototype. The developed process allows a transparent substrate, either glass or polymer, to be transformed into a highly conductive material by the incorporation of a metallic mesh, invisible to the naked eye and very weakly absorbing. This process could find applications in the areas of transparent electronics and adaptive optics, two key sectors for tomorrow’s industry