The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 08, 2021
Filed:
May. 15, 2018
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Paul X. Wang, Cupertino, CA (US);
Joel N. Ruscher, Fremont, CA (US);
Christopher T. Lebedeff, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Sean Murphy, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Melody Kuna, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
An electronic device such as a cover for a portable device or other electronic equipment may have circuitry mounted in a housing. The housing may be formed from layers of material such as fabric and polymer layers. The circuitry of the electronic device may include components mounted on a printed circuit. The components may include movable components such as keys in a keyboard. A fabric layer may overlap the keys. Border regions of the fabric layer that surround each key may be characterized by a stiffness. To ensure that the keys or other movable components in the device exhibit satisfactory stiffness levels, the keys can be tested and selected border regions or other fabric layer portions may be laser ablated or otherwise processed to locally reduce fabric layer stiffness.