Patents by Inventor Brian S. Tryon
Brian S. Tryon has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20240142684Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may be provided with conductive structures. The conductive structures may include a sensor electrode for an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor. A coating may be disposed on the sensor electrode to reflect particular wavelengths of visible light so that the sensor electrode exhibits a desired color. The coating may include adhesion and transition layers on the sensor electrode, an opaque coloring layer on the adhesion and transition layers, and a thin-film interference filter on the opaque coloring layer. The thin-film interference filter may have an uppermost diamond-like carbon (DLC) layer. The DLC layer may contribute to the color response of the coating while concurrently minimizing noise in ECG waveforms gathered by the ECG sensor using the sensor electrode.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 13, 2023Publication date: May 2, 2024Inventors: Bin Fan, Brian S. Tryon, Xiaofan Niu, Chia-Yeh Lee, Frank C. Sit, Hien Minh H Le, Justin S. Shi, Shinjita Acharya, Ziqing Duan
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Publication number: 20240076504Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with conductive structures such as conductive housing structures. A visible-light-reflecting coating may be formed on the conductive structures. The coating may have adhesion and transition layers, an opaque coloring layer on the adhesion and transition layers, and a three-layer thin-film interference filter on the opaque coloring layer. The three-layer thin-film interference filter may have an uppermost SiC layer, a lowermost SiCrCN layer, and a CrC layer interposed between the SiC layer and the SiCrCN layer. The opaque color layer may be a CrSiCN layer. The coating may exhibit a light violet color that has a relatively uniform visual response even when the underlying conductive structures have a three-dimensional shape.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 3, 2023Publication date: March 7, 2024Inventors: Lijie Bao, Brian S. Tryon, Jozef M. Matlak, Shinjita Acharya
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Patent number: 11910552Abstract: An electronic device may have a housing. The device may include metal structures such as a metal member forming a portion of the housing, a portion of a strap, or other portions of the device. A gold-containing coating such as a layer of elemental gold or a gold alloy may cover the metal member to provide the metal member with a gold appearance or other desired appearance. To protect the metal member and the gold-containing coating, the metal member and gold-containing coating may be covered with a protective coating layer such as an organic protective layer. The organic protective layer may have a fluoropolymer layer with thiol coupling groups to promote adhesion to the gold-containing layer or may contain a polymer layer with silane and thiol coupling groups that serves as an adhesion promotion layer for an overlapping fluoropolymer layer with silane coupling groups.Type: GrantFiled: June 17, 2020Date of Patent: February 20, 2024Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Manish Mittal, Brian S. Tryon, James A. Yurko, Jing Zhou, Matthew S. Rogers, Naoto Matsuyuki
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Patent number: 11739425Abstract: An electronic device may include conductive structures having a visible-light-reflecting coating. The coating may include a seed layer, transition layers, a neutral-color base layer, and an uppermost layer that forms a single-layer interference film. The neutral-color base layer may be opaque to visible light. The interference film may include silicon and may have an absorption coefficient between 0 and 1. The interference film may include, for example, CrSiN or CrSiCN. The composition of the interference film, the thickness of the interference film, and/or the composition of the base layer may be selected to provide the coating with a desired color near the middle of the visible spectrum (e.g., at green wavelengths). The color may be relatively stable even if the thickness of the coating varies across its area.Type: GrantFiled: July 17, 2020Date of Patent: August 29, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Brian S. Tryon, Lijie Bao, Martin Melcher, Sonja R. Postak
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Patent number: 11719865Abstract: An electronic device may include conductive structures having a visible-light-reflecting coating. The coating may include a seed layer, transition layers, a neutral-color base layer, and an uppermost layer that forms a single-layer interference film. The neutral-color base layer may be opaque to visible light. The interference film may include silicon and may have an absorption coefficient between 0 and 1. The interference film may include, for example, CrSiCN or CrSiC. The composition of the interference film, the thickness of the interference film, and/or the composition of the base layer may be selected to provide the coating with a desired color in the visible spectrum (e.g., at blue or purple wavelengths). The color may be relatively stable even if the thickness of the coating varies across its area.Type: GrantFiled: February 16, 2021Date of Patent: August 8, 2023Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Brian S. Tryon, Lijie Bao, Martin Melcher, Sonja R. Postak
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Publication number: 20230244018Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with conductive structures such as conductive housing structures. A visible-light-reflecting coating may be formed on the conductive structures. The coating may have adhesion and transition layers and a multi-layer thin-film interference filter on the adhesion and transition layers. The multi-layer thin-film interference filter may have an uppermost SiCrN layer, a lowermost TiN layer, and a set of SiN layers interleaved with a set of SiH layers. The coating may exhibit an orange, yellow, or red color that has a relatively uniform visual response at different viewing angles even when the underlying conductive structures have a three-dimensional shape.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 19, 2023Publication date: August 3, 2023Inventors: Brian S Tryon, Naoto Matsuyuki, Shuichi Shimada, Bin Fan, Hyuga Taniguchi
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Publication number: 20230046594Abstract: A coating-substrate combination includes: a Ni-based superalloy substrate comprising, by weight percent: 2.0-5.1 Cr; 0.9-3.3 Mo; 3.9-9.8 W; 2.2-6.8 Ta; 5.4-6.5 Al; 1.8-12.8 Co; 2.8-5.8 Re; 2.8-7.2 Ru; and a coating comprising, exclusive of Pt group elements, by weight percent: Ni as a largest content; 5.8-9.3 Al; 4.4-25 Cr; 3.0-13.5 Co; up to 6.0 Ta, if any; up to 6.2 W, if any; up to 2.4 Mo, if any; 0.3-0.6 Hf; 0.1-0.4 Si; up to 0.6 Y, if any; up to 0.4 Zr, if any; up to 1.0 Re, if any.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 1, 2022Publication date: February 16, 2023Applicant: Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp.Inventors: Joel Larose, Alan D. Cetel, David A. Litton, Brian S. Tryon
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Patent number: 11518143Abstract: A coating-substrate combination includes: a Ni-based superalloy substrate comprising, by weight percent: 2.0-5.1 Cr; 0.9-3.3 Mo; 3.9-9.8 W; 2.2-6.8 Ta; 5.4-6.5 Al; 1.8-12.8 Co; 2.8-5.8 Re; 2.8-7.2 Ru; and a coating comprising, exclusive of Pt group elements, by weight percent: Ni as a largest content; 5.8-9.3 Al; 4.4-25 Cr; 3.0-13.5 Co; up to 6.0 Ta, if any; up to 6.2 W, if any; up to 2.4 Mo, if any; 0.3-0.6 Hf; 0.1-0.4 Si; up to 0.6 Y, if any; up to 0.4 Zr, if any; up to 1.0 Re, if any.Type: GrantFiled: September 23, 2020Date of Patent: December 6, 2022Assignee: Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp.Inventors: Joel Larose, Alan D. Cetel, David A. Litton, Brian S. Tryon
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Publication number: 20220350062Abstract: An electronic device may include conductive structures with a light-reflecting coating. The coating may have a two or four-layer thin-film interference filter. The two-layer filter may have a CrN layer and an SiCrN layer. The four-layer filter may have two CrN layers and two SiCrN layers. The two-layer filter may be used to coat relatively small conductive components. The four-layer filter may be used to coat a conductive housing sidewall. Both types of interference filter may produce a relatively uniform light blue color despite variations in coating thickness produced on account of the geometry of the underlying conductive structure.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 27, 2021Publication date: November 3, 2022Inventors: Lijie Bao, Jiayun Liu, Fei Tong, Jozef M. Matlak, Sonja R. Postak, Brian S. Tryon
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Patent number: 11268188Abstract: A method of forming a surface coating on a component of an electronic device can include depositing an aluminum layer including at least about 0.05 weight percent (wt %) of a grain refiner on a surface of the component by a physical vapor deposition process, and anodizing the aluminum layer to form an anodized aluminum oxide layer having a L* value greater than about 85 in the CIELAB color space.Type: GrantFiled: July 23, 2019Date of Patent: March 8, 2022Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Brian S. Tryon, Alexander W. Williams, James A. Curran, Sonja R. Postak
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Publication number: 20220066397Abstract: An electronic device may include conductive structures such as conductive housing structures. A high-brightness, visible-light-reflecting coating may be formed on the conductive structures. The coating may have adhesion and transition layers and an uppermost coloring layer on the adhesion and transition layers. At least the uppermost coloring layer may be deposited using a high impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) process. The uppermost coloring layer may include a TiCrN film, a TiCrCN film, a TiCN film, or a metal nitride film that contains Ti, Zr, Hf, or Cr. The coating may exhibit a high-brightness gold color.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 19, 2021Publication date: March 3, 2022Inventors: Jozef M. Matlak, Brian S. Tryon, Lijie Bao, Maruwada Sukanya Sharma, Shiva K. Mandepudi, Sonja R. Postak
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Publication number: 20210400830Abstract: An electronic device may have a housing. The device may include metal structures such as a metal member forming a portion of the housing, a portion of a strap, or other portions of the device. A gold-containing coating such as a layer of elemental gold or a gold alloy may cover the metal member to provide the metal member with a gold appearance or other desired appearance. To protect the metal member and the gold-containing coating, the metal member and gold-containing coating may be covered with a protective coating layer such as an organic protective layer. The organic protective layer may have a fluoropolymer layer with thiol coupling groups to promote adhesion to the gold-containing layer or may contain a polymer layer with silane and thiol coupling groups that serves as an adhesion promotion layer for an overlapping fluoropolymer layer with silane coupling groups.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 17, 2020Publication date: December 23, 2021Inventors: Manish Mittal, Brian S. Tryon, James A. Yurko, Jing Zhou, Matthew S. Rogers, Naoto Matsuyuki
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Publication number: 20210388507Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may include a conductive housing. A corrosion-resistant coating may be deposited on the conductive housing. The coating may include transition layers and an uppermost alloy layer. The transition layers may include a chromium seed layer on the conductive housing and a chromium nitride layer on the chromium seed layer. The uppermost alloy layer may include TiCrCN or other alloys and may provide the coating with desired optical reflection and absorption characteristics. The transition layers may include a minimal number of coating defects, thereby eliminating potential sites at which visible defects could form when exposed to salt water. This may allow the electronic device to exhibit a desired color and to be submerged in salt water without producing undesirable visible defects on the conductive housing structures.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 30, 2021Publication date: December 16, 2021Inventors: Brian S. Tryon, Isabel Yang, Todd Mintz, Jeremy Li, Brian Gable, Lijie Bao, Yi Chen, Christopher D. Prest, James Yurko
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Patent number: 11136672Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may include a conductive housing. A corrosion-resistant coating may be deposited on the conductive housing. The coating may include transition layers and an uppermost alloy layer. The transition layers may include a chromium seed layer on the conductive housing and a chromium nitride layer on the chromium seed layer. The uppermost alloy layer may include TiCrCN or other alloys and may provide the coating with desired optical reflection and absorption characteristics. The transition layers may include a minimal number of coating defects, thereby eliminating potential sites at which visible defects could form when exposed to salt water. This may allow the electronic device to exhibit a desired color and to be submerged in salt water without producing undesirable visible defects on the conductive housing structures.Type: GrantFiled: August 13, 2019Date of Patent: October 5, 2021Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Brian S. Tryon, Isabel Yang, Todd Mintz, Jeremy Li, Brian Gable, Lijie Bao, Yi Chen, Christopher D. Prest, James Yurko
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Publication number: 20210286112Abstract: An electronic device may include conductive structures having a visible-light-reflecting coating. The coating may include a seed layer, transition layers, a neutral-color base layer, and an uppermost layer that forms a single-layer interference film. The neutral-color base layer may be opaque to visible light. The interference film may include silicon and may have an absorption coefficient between 0 and 1. The interference film may include, for example, CrSiCN or CrSiC. The composition of the interference film, the thickness of the interference film, and/or the composition of the base layer may be selected to provide the coating with a desired color in the visible spectrum (e.g., at blue or purple wavelengths). The color may be relatively stable even if the thickness of the coating varies across its area.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 16, 2021Publication date: September 16, 2021Inventors: Brian S. Tryon, Lijie Bao, Martin Melcher, Sonja R. Postak
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Patent number: 10941503Abstract: The embodiments described herein relate to forming anodized films that have a white appearance. In some embodiments, an anodized film having pores with light diffusing pore walls created by varying the current density during an anodizing process is described. In some embodiments, an anodized film having light diffusing micro-cracks created by a laser cracking procedure is described. In some embodiments, a sputtered layer of light diffusing aluminum is provided below an anodized film. In some embodiments, light diffusing particles are infused within openings of an anodized layer.Type: GrantFiled: December 10, 2018Date of Patent: March 9, 2021Assignee: APPLE INC.Inventors: Lucy E. Browning, Stephen B. Lynch, Christopher D. Prest, Peter N. Russell-Clarke, Masashige Tatebe, Michael S. Nashner, Daniel T. McDonald, Brian S. Tryon, Jody R. Akana
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Publication number: 20210048565Abstract: An electronic device may include conductive structures having a visible-light-reflecting coating. The coating may include a seed layer, transition layers, a neutral-color base layer, and an uppermost layer that forms a single-layer interference film. The neutral-color base layer may be opaque to visible light. The interference film may include silicon and may have an absorption coefficient between 0 and 1. The interference film may include, for example, CrSiN or CrSiCN. The composition of the interference film, the thickness of the interference film, and/or the composition of the base layer may be selected to provide the coating with a desired color near the middle of the visible spectrum (e.g., at green wavelengths). The color may be relatively stable even if the thickness of the coating varies across its area.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 17, 2020Publication date: February 18, 2021Inventors: Brian S. Tryon, Lijie Bao, Martin Melcher, Sonja R. Postak
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Publication number: 20210001603Abstract: A coating-substrate combination includes: a Ni-based superalloy substrate comprising, by weight percent: 2.0-5.1 Cr; 0.9-3.3 Mo; 3.9-9.8 W; 2.2-6.8 Ta; 5.4-6.5 Al; 1.8-12.8 Co; 2.8-5.8 Re; 2.8-7.2 Ru; and a coating comprising, exclusive of Pt group elements, by weight percent: Ni as a largest content; 5.8-9.3 Al; 4.4-25 Cr; 3.0-13.5 Co; up to 6.0 Ta, if any; up to 6.2 W, if any; up to 2.4 Mo, if any; 0.3-0.6 Hf; 0.1-0.4 Si; up to 0.6 Y, if any; up to 0.4 Zr, if any; up to 1.0 Re, if any.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 23, 2020Publication date: January 7, 2021Applicant: Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp.Inventors: Joel Larose, Alan D. Cetel, David A. Litton, Brian S. Tryon
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Patent number: 10859267Abstract: An oxidation resistant coating system for a turbine engine component includes a cathodic arc coating applied to a surface of the engine component, a thin APS metallic coating applied to a surface of the cathodic arc coating, and a ceramic top coating applied to a surface of the thin APS metallic coating to improve lifetime of the engine components.Type: GrantFiled: December 12, 2014Date of Patent: December 8, 2020Assignee: RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATIONInventors: Brian S. Tryon, Alexander W. Williams, Stephen K. Kramer, Kevin W. Schlichting, Jessica L. Serra
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Publication number: 20200347492Abstract: A method of forming a surface coating on a component of an electronic device can include depositing an aluminum layer including at least about 0.05 weight percent (wt %) of a grain refiner on a surface of the component by a physical vapor deposition process, and anodizing the aluminum layer to form an anodized aluminum oxide layer having a L* value greater than about 85 in the CIELAB color space.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 23, 2019Publication date: November 5, 2020Inventors: Brian S. Tryon, Alexander W. Williams, James A. Curran, Sonja R. Postak