Aerospace & Defense Finalist: Laser-Generated Anti-Icing and Anti-Fogging Transparent Materials

Chi Vinh Ngo and Chunlei Guo
AlchLight LLC
Rochester, NY

The windshields, windows, and covers of aircrafts, cars, vehicles, and cameras must endure harsh environments. Snow and ice buildup pose significant risks in cold weather while fogging can obscure the pilot’s or driver’s view, compromising safety. Icing and fogging on cameras also impact their operational eDectiveness. To address these challenges, AlchLight has invented and pioneered a non-coating laser surface processing (LSP) technology that turns regular transparent materials such as glass and polymers superhydrophobic.

“AlchLight founder invented and pioneered laser technology that permanently alters the wetting and optical properties of various materials, creating the so-called black and colored metals, superhydrophobic, and multifunctional surfaces,” said Chi Vinh Ngo, Manager and Senior Scientist at AlchLight.

The altered materials also provide superior anti-icing and anti-fogging capabilities while maintaining high transparency. Moreover, AlchLight has developed an m-nm surface multi-functionalization workstation that can process a meter-size surface area at an nm resolution on both flat and curved surfaces, which can scale and transfer LSP to the marketplace.

According to the team, unlike conventional chemical coatings, the company’s LSP technology permanently alters the intrinsic wetting property of transparent materials without compromising their transparency and does not rely on chemical coatings, so LSP technology is fundamentally immune to the flaking and delamination issues associated with coating.

The treated surface has an extremely strong hydrophobic performance, and it repels moisture with rigor; the moisture will not be able to stick to the surface and it will be always repelled away. Therefore, it prevents snow, ice, and fog formation in the first place. The durable nature of this treatment ensures cost-eDectiveness and environmental friendliness.

“Our laser-generated anti-icing and anti-fogging glass and disruptive laser technologies for transparent materials are one of the priorities of AlchLight’s current business products and a major sought-after by key industrial giants,” said Chi.

AlchLight is a well-established DoD Phase III contractor and an award-winning innovator. After successfully completing a number of SBIR Phase I and II awards, it is currently a SBIR Phase-III contractor, which allows it to integrate its technologies into the production lines of two types of crucial military equipment. Therefore, its technology transition success rate beyond Phase II currently stands at 100 percent.

On the civilian side, AlchLight has a strong customer base and has been providing crucial technological solutions to dozens of customers across a range of industrial sectors, whether applications are desired for high-quality integrated materials or highly transparent anti-icing and anti-fogging materials. Just over the past 24 months, it has amassed over 12 paid customers from major industrial leaders, and the list continues to grow rapidly.

“With a strong private customer base, AlchLight has provided crucial solutions to dozens of customers across various industrial sectors like FLIR, Magna, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and Moog. We are also advancing a fully automated laser-workstation to reduce processing costs to <$1/in²,” added Chi.

According to him, many companies have contacted Alch-Light for solutions to their industrial challenges. For example, under the ongoing wave of self-driven vehicle developments, two key industrial players have contracted the team to develop superhydrophobic polymer and glass covers for anti-icing and anti-rain sensor/camera, crucial for self-driving vehicles’ operation and safety.

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