Patent ID: 7201022

Claim:
A method of reducing the effects of surface penetrating defects in a substrate having a thin film, comprising: providing a glass substrate; applying a thin film on or over the glass substrate; applying a sol-gel layer on or over the thin film, the sol-gel layer seeping into the thin film and filling at least some voids, cracks or other surface penetrating defects present in the thin film; and curing the sol-gel layer to combine the sol-gel layer and the thin film layer into a sol-gel/thin film layer having reduced porosity and surface penetrating defects; wherein curing the sol-gel yields the sol-gel/thin film layer that exhibits an etch rate that is substantially the same as the corresponding property in the thin film layer prior to applying the sol-gel layer; applying a photoresist material layer to the sol-gel/thin-film layer; exposing the photoresist material layer through a mask; developing the photoresist material layer to achieve a pattern of protected portions of the sol-gel thin film layer; applying an etchant to remove unprotected portions of the sol-gel/thin film layer; and removing the photoresist material layer remaining over the protected portions of the sol-gel/thin film layer.