Patent ID: 6703586
Filing Date: 2004-03-09
Classification: B32B,H05B

Abstract:
A method of heating a localized region of a vehicle window comprising:providing a generally transparent electrically conductive coating over substantially an entirety of a viewable coated portion of said vehicle window that is exposed when said vehicle window is mounted in a vehicle, while providing isolation traces in said conductive coating so as to divide said viewable coated portion into low-current and high-current regions and while providing patterning through said conductive coating at localized areas in which one of said low-current regions transition to one of said high-current regions, thereby achieving an increase in average resistance in said localized areas that are immediately adjacent to a region-to-region transition; and coupling a power source to said conductive coating such that electrical current is induced to flow among said high-current and low-current regions of said viewable coated portion, thereby achieving selective heating of said high-current regions relative to said low-current regions of said viewable coated portion; wherein said vehicle window is a windshield of said vehicle, said isolation traces being formed along a bottom of said windshield such that an area in which windshield wipers reside is heated by coupling said power source to said conductive coating, said providing said isolation traces including forming electrically non-conductive lines that define a series of said high-current regions along said bottom of said windshield, said localized areas having said increase in average resistance being immediately adjacent to ends of said electrically non-conductive lines.