Apple Inc.

Siddharth Mohapatra

John Z Zhong

Sunggu Kang

Brian Kinting Shiu

George V Anastas

Lili Huang

Christopher R Pasma

Haran Balaram

YooEup Hyung

Bookeun Oh

Junhua Liu

Cheng Kai Chen

Masato Kuwabara

Albert Lin

Aspects of the present disclosure involve various battery can designs. In general, the battery can design includes two fitted surfaces oriented opposite each other and seam welded together to form an enclosure in which a battery stack is located. To form the enclosure, the two fitted surfaces are welded together along the large perimeter. Other swelling-resisting advantages may also be achieved utilizing the battery can design described herein including, but not limited to, the ability to modify one or more can wall thicknesses to control a pressure applied to the battery stack by the can, overall reduction in wall thickness of the can through the use of stronger materials for the can surfaces, additional supports structures included within the can design, and/or bossing or other localized thinning of surfaces of the can.

Battery can

Processes for manufacturing touch sensors with one or more guard traces to reduce the effect of moisture damage are provided. One example process can include forming one or more guard traces between an edge of the touch sensor and the metal traces that route the drive and sense lines to bond pads. The one or more guard traces can be uncoupled from the drive lines and sense lines to protect the inner metal traces from moisture damage. In some examples, ends of the one or more guard traces can be coupled to ground by copper. In other examples, ends of the one or more guard traces can be coupled to ground by indium tin oxide or the one or more guard traces can be coupled to ground by a strip of indium tin oxide. In yet other examples, the guard trace can be floating (e.g., not coupled to ground).

Corrosion mitigation for metal traces

Processes for fabricating compact touch sensors for touch sensitive devices are disclosed. A process can include providing a touch sensor structure having a substrate, a first layer disposed on the substrate, and a second layer disposed on the first layer. The second layer can have an ablation fluence value that is lower than an ablation fluence value of the first layer. The process can include patterning the second layer with a laser emitting energy having a fluence value greater than or equal to the ablation fluence value of the second layer and less than the ablation fluence value of the first layer. The process can further include etching at least a portion of the first layer that was exposed during the patterning of the second layer. At least a portion of the second layer can then be removed by etching or laser ablation.

Touch sensitive device with multiple ablation fluence values

Roll-to-roll processes for manufacturing touch sensors on a plastic base film are provided. The touch sensors can be deposited on the base film using various patterning techniques. One or more shorting bars can also be patterned onto the base film to couple together traces, such as drive lines, sense lines, conductive traces, and the like, of the touch sensor to prevent a potential difference from forming between traces due to static buildup during the manufacturing process. After the touch sensor is fully formed on the base film, the touch sensor can be removed from the base film using lithography or a physical cutting process. The removal process can separate the touch sensor from the one or more shorting bars, thereby uncoupling the traces of the touch sensor.

Method of manufacturing touch sensors

When a user operates a touch sensor panel having an LCD device outdoors or in a bright environment, light reflecting off the device can create glare. In order to reduce glare, a user can view the device through polarized filters such as polarized sunglasses. Doing so can reduce the visibility of the image displayed on the LCD. A quarter-wave retardation film can be added to the touch sensor panel's LCD device to mitigate these effects by producing circularly polarized light. However, adding a separate quarter-wave retardation film can increase the thickness and cost of manufacturing the touch sensor panel. Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a touch sensor panel constructed from a base film having quarter-wave retardation properties that can produce circularly polarized light. Because the base film has the desired optical properties, a separate quarter-wave retardation film may not be needed.

Dual purpose touch sensor panel and optical retarder

A method for fabricating a touch sensor panel is disclosed. The method includes providing a substrate for the touch sensor panel, depositing a conductive material layer on a top surface of the substrate, depositing a metal layer on top of the conductive material layer, affixing a resist to a first area of the metal layer, the resist also adapted to serve as a passivation layer during passivation, removing metal from the metal layer outside of the first area; and performing passivation on the substrate while leaving the affixed resist intact.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Siddharth Mohapatra