Structured transparent low emissivity coatings with high microwave transmission

In order to reduce the energy consumption of buildings, modern windows include metal-containing coatings. These coatings strongly attenuate the microwaves used for mobile communications. Here, we present a novel approach to improve radio signal transmission by structuring a low emissivity coating. Laser ablation is used to scribe a line pattern on the coating. The microwave attenuation of the initial coating ranges between −25 and −30 dB between 850 MHz and 3 GHz. The optimized patterning reduces it down to −1.2 ± 0.6 dB. The fraction of the ablated area is relatively low. Our experimental results show that it is possible to reach a level of attenuation close to that of a glass substrate by removing less than 4% of the coating area. The ablated lines are thin enough to not be noticed in most common lighting situations. Therefore, we achieve a dual spectral selectivity: the coated glass is transparent in the visible range, reflective in the infrared and nearly as transparent as its glass substrate to microwaves. Additionally, numerical simulations were performed and show that the attenuation at grazing incidences is dominated by the behaviour of the glass substrate. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first time that experimental evidence for the combination of such properties is reported and that detailed experimental data are compared to numerical simulations. We anticipate that our findings will be of major importance for the building and transportation sectors.