Patterned glass layers in electronic devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11330708-B2
Application number	US-202016922871-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2020
Priority date	Jul 31, 2017
Publication date	May 10, 2022
Grant date	May 10, 2022

Abstract

An electronic device may include electrical components and other components mounted within an interior of a housing. The device may have a display on a front face of the device and may have a glass layer that forms part of the housing on a rear face of the device. The glass layer may be provided with regions having different appearances. The regions may be textured, may have coatings such as thin-film interference filter coatings formed from stacks of dielectric material having alternating indices of refraction, may have metal coating layers, and/or may have ink coating layers. Textured surfaces may be formed on thin glass layers and polymer films that are coupled to the glass layer. A glass layer may be formed from a pair of coupled glass layers. The coupled layers may have one or more recesses or other structures to visually distinguish different regions of the glass layer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device having opposing front and rear faces and an interior, the electronic device comprising:
a display that emits light through the front face; and
a glass layer that forms a housing wall on the rear face, wherein the glass layer is a continuous glass layer, wherein the continuous glass layer has a first glass region having a first appearance and a second glass region having a second appearance that is different from the first appearance, and wherein the second glass region surrounds the first glass region.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising:
a coating that forms a logo on the glass layer, wherein the logo is overlapped by the first glass region.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the first appearance is a shiny appearance and the second appearance is a matte appearance.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the first glass region has a first color and the second glass region has a second color that is different from the first color.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 4 wherein the first color is selected from the group of colors consisting of: silver and gold.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the first glass region is a smooth region and wherein the second glass region is a textured region.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the glass layer has an inner surface facing the interior and an opposing outer surface, and wherein the textured region is formed on the outer surface of the glass layer.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the glass layer has an inner surface facing the interior and an opposing outer surface, and wherein the textured region is formed on the inner surface of the glass layer.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising:
a thin-film interference filter coating comprising a stack of dielectric layers on the glass layer.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the thin-film interference filter coating overlaps the first glass region and the second glass region of the glass layer.

11. The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the thin-film interference filter coating overlaps the first glass region of the glass layer and does not overlap the second glass region of the glass layer.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the glass layer is a first glass layer, the electronic device further comprising:
a second glass layer coupled to the first glass layer, wherein the second glass layer is thinner than the first glass layer.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 12 wherein the second glass layer has a surface and wherein at least a portion of the surface is textured.

14. An electronic device having opposing front and rear faces and an interior, the electronic device comprising:
a display that displays images on the front face; and
a glass layer that forms a housing wall on the rear face, wherein the glass layer has a laser-damaged region and a region that is free from laser damage.

15. The electronic device defined in claim 14 wherein the laser-damaged region surrounds the region that is free from laser damage.

16. The electronic device defined in claim 14 wherein the region that is free from laser damage surrounds the laser-damaged region.

17. The electronic device defined in claim 14 further comprising a coating that overlaps the region that is free from laser damage, wherein the coating forms a logo.

18. An electronic device having opposing front and rear faces and an interior, the electronic device comprising:
a display that emits light through the front face;
a glass layer that forms a housing wall on the rear face, wherein the glass layer has a first region with a shiny appearance and a second region with a matte appearance; and
a coating on the glass layer that overlaps the first region.

19. The electronic device defined in claim 18 wherein the first region of the glass layer is smooth and wherein the second region of the glass layer is textured.

20. The electronic device defined in claim 19 wherein the coating forms a logo and wherein the coating overlaps only the first region without overlapping the second region.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Wilson James R
• Prest Christopher D
• Giachino Marta M
• Rogers Matthew S
• Nguyen Que Anh S

Classifications

• H05K5/0243

  for decorative purposes · CPC title

• G09F9/30 Primary

  in which the desired character or characters are formed by combining individual elements (panels comprising a number of electrodes in a single cell controlling light arriving from an independent light source, e.g. electro-optical or magneto-optical cell, G02F1/00) · CPC title

• B32B2457/208

  Touch screens · CPC title

• B32B2457/202

  LCD, i.e. liquid crystal displays · CPC title

• B32B2457/20

  Displays, e.g. liquid crystal displays, plasma displays · CPC title