Electronic Devices with Moisture Guiding Structures
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsFelix Alvarez, Kyle H. Yates
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Electronic devices may have housings in which components are mounted. Some of the components may be sensitive to moisture. Other components may be insensitive to moisture and may form openings in a device housing that allow moisture to escape from within the housing. Components may be mounted on substrates such as printed circuit board substrates. Moisture repelling layers and moisture attracting layers may be patterned to form channels and other structures that guide moisture away from sensitive components towards insensitive components. Moisture repelling and attracting layers may also be used to limit the lateral spread of a conformal coating layer when coating components.
Claims20
An electronic device, comprising:
- a housing;
- at least one electronic component mounted on a substrate in the housing;
- a coating on the substrate that surrounds the at least one electronic component;
- and
- a conformal coating that covers the at least one electronic component and is laterally constrained by the coating that surrounds the at least one electronic component.
A method, comprising:
- depositing a coating on a printed circuit substrate, wherein the coating surrounds a moisture-sensitive electronic component mounted to the substrate;
- forming a conformal coating over the moisture-sensitive electronic component, wherein the conformal coating is laterally constrained by the coating that surrounds the moisture-sensitive electronic component;
- and
- forming a patterned hydrophobic coating layer on the substrate and a patterned hydrophilic coating layer on the substrate, wherein the patterned hydrophobic coating layer and the patterned hydrophilic coating layer form a moisture-guiding channel that that directs moisture away from the moisture-sensitive electronic component and towards a moisture-insensitive component.
An electronic device, comprising:
- a housing;
- a printed circuit board in the housing;
- at least one moisture-sensitive electronic component mounted to the printed circuit board;
- a coating on the printed circuit board that surrounds the at least one moisture-sensitive electronic component;
- a conformal coating that covers the at least one moisture-sensitive electronic component and is laterally constrained by the coating that surrounds the at least one moisture-sensitive electronic component;
- and
- patterned coating layers on the printed circuit board that direct water away from the at least one moisture-sensitive electronic component and towards a moisture-insensitive component in the electronic device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.