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:
Nov. 27, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 27, 2000
René Staub, Cham, CH;
Wayne Robert Tompkin, Baden, CH;
OVD Kingegram AG, Zug, CH;
Abstract
A surface pattern (,) is composed of elements (,to,) which are arranged in a mosaic-like fashion and of which at least one pattern is formed from a background element (,) and a pixel (,) with microscopically fine relief structures diffracting visible light. The surface elements (,) and the element portions (,) either contain the microscopically fine relief structures diffracting visible light or they comprise reflecting or scattering surfaces. Arranged in the pixel (,) is a first diffraction grating B,and arranged in the background element (,) is a second diffraction grating B,, wherein the first diffraction grating B,and the second diffraction grating B,are a superimposition of at least two different, microscopically fine relief structures F,and F,diffracting visible light. The first diffraction grating B,and the second diffraction grating B,differ only by virtue of a relative phase shift &Dgr;&phgr; between the relief structure F,and the relief structure F,. Upon illumination with polychromatic light the pattern is of a single color which has brightness differences in zones involving different values of the phase shift &Dgr;&phgr;.