Techniques for marking a substrate using a physical vapor deposition material
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsDouglas Weber, Christopher Prest, David Pakula, Stephen Paul Zadesky
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Abstract
Techniques, processes and structures are disclosed for providing markings on products, such as electronic devices. For example, the markings can be formed using physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes to deposit a layer of material. The markings or labels may be textual and/or graphic. The markings are deposited on a compliant layer that is disposed on a surface to be marked. The compliant layer is arranged to isolate the surface to be marked from the layer of material deposited using the PVD process.
Claims26
A portable electronic device, comprising:
- a housing for the portable electronic device, the housing including at least a surface to be marked;
- a buffer layer deposited on the surface to be marked;
- and
- a layer of material deposited, the layer of material deposited being deposited on the buffer layer such that the buffer layer is positioned between the surface and the layer of material deposited, wherein the layer of material serves to provide one or more markings to the surface to be marked,
- wherein the buffer layer is arranged to reduce stress on the surface to be marked that would otherwise be induced by the layer of material if provided directly on the surface to be marked,
- wherein the buffer layer has a thickness of between approximately 50 nm and approximately 500 nm.
A portable electronic device, comprising:
- a housing for the portable electronic device, the housing including at least a surface to be marked;
- a buffer layer deposited on the surface to be marked;
- and
- a layer of material deposited, the layer of material deposited being deposited on the buffer layer such that the buffer layer is positioned between the surface and the layer of material deposited, wherein the layer of material serves to provide one or more markings to the surface to be marked,
- wherein the buffer layer is arranged to reduce stress on the surface to be marked that would otherwise be induced by the layer of material if provided directly on the surface to be marked,
- wherein the layer of material to be deposited comprises metal,
- wherein the layer of material is deposited using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process,
- wherein the surface to be marked is glass, and
- wherein the surface to be marked is in the interior of the housing, and wherein the buffer layer and the layer of material deposited using the PVD process are located in the interior of the housing.
A portable electronic device, comprising:
- a housing for the portable electronic device, the housing including at least a surface to be marked;
- a buffer layer deposited on the surface to be marked;
- and
- a layer of material deposited, the layer of material deposited being deposited on the buffer layer such that the buffer layer is positioned between the surface and the layer of material deposited, wherein the layer of material serves to provide one or more markings to the surface to be marked,
- wherein the layer of material is deposited using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process,
- wherein the layer of material to be deposited comprises metal,
- wherein the surface to be marked is glass,
- wherein the surface to be marked is in the interior of the housing, and
- wherein the buffer layer and the layer of material are located in the interior of the housing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.