Switchable glass or smart windows have been developed and discussed for decades. They have bright futures in applications such as vehicle, architecture, privacy and energy efficient glazing among others. The next generation of switchable glass based on micro-blinds might help the incursion of smart windows to the market, or at least to some niche markets. The micro-blinds are composed of invisible and electrostatically activated curling electrodes of 100 micrometer size. They can be deposited on flat glass by magnetron sputtering like regular low-E coatings, and then patterned by laser. They possess several advantages such as switching speed, UV durability, customised appearance and transmission, and do not employ costly ITO, relative to the current smart windows technologies: Electrochromic, suspended particles and liquid crystals. Several groups have successfully developed curling electrodes for small area devices; the novelty of the proposed technology lies in the revolutionary and cost effective processing scheme for large areas.
