PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-10852574-B2
Application Number: US-201815912317-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Transparent coatings with multilayer flake pigments

Abstract:
Substrates such as transparent glass layers or other transparent substrates may be used to form protective display cover layers, windows, housing structures, camera windows, and other structures. Coatings may be formed on the substrates, on pixel arrays such as flexible organic light-emitting diode pixel arrays, housing structures, and other structures. The coatings may have optical properties arising from the inclusion of pigment flakes in a clear polymer binder. The pigment flakes may be formed from a thin-film interference layer. The thin-film interference filter layer may have a stack of dielectric layers with a pattern of refractive index values selected to adjust the optical properties of the pigment flakes. The stack of dielectric layers may be configured to form an infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting optical characteristic for the coatings and/or may have other desired spectral properties.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An electronic device, comprising:
 a pixel array; 
 a glass layer covering the pixel array; and 
 an infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating on the glass layer that includes pigment flakes in a polymer binder, wherein the pigment flakes include thin-film filter dielectric stacks, wherein each pigment flake contains a stack of at least four inorganic layers with differing indices of refraction, wherein the polymer binder has an index of refraction of less than 1.6, and wherein the infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating has a visible light transmission of at least 99%. 
 
     
     
       2. The electronic device defined in  claim 1  wherein the electronic device has a housing, wherein the pixel array and glass layer are mounted in the housing, and wherein images are visible on the pixel array through the glass layer and the infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating, and wherein the infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating is further configured to block ultraviolet light. 
     
     
       3. The electronic device defined in  claim 1  wherein each pigment flake includes a polymer substrate. 
     
     
       4. The electronic device defined in  claim 3  wherein the thin-film filter dielectric stacks are formed from inorganic layers on a first side of each polymer substrate and wherein an opposing second side of each polymer substrate is free of the inorganic layers. 
     
     
       5. The electronic device defined in  claim 3  wherein the thin-film filter dielectric stacks are formed from inorganic layers on opposing first and second sides of each polymer substrate. 
     
     
       6. The electronic device defined in  claim 1  wherein each pigment flake has lateral dimensions of 1-30 microns. 
     
     
       7. The electronic device defined in  claim 6  wherein each pigment flake has a thickness of 0.5-3 microns. 
     
     
       8. The electronic device defined in  claim 1  wherein the infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating is characterized by an infrared light transmission at 700-2500 nm of less than 25%. 
     
     
       9. An electronic device, comprising:
 a flexible pixel array; and 
 an infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting flexible flake pigment coating over the pixel array that includes pigment flakes in a polymer binder, wherein the pigment flakes include thin-film filter stacks, the thin-film filter stacks comprise only dielectric material, and the coating has a transmittance of at least 75% across visible wavelengths. 
 
     
     
       10. The electronic device defined in  claim 9  further comprising a housing configured to bend, wherein the flexible pixel array and the flexible flake pigment coating are configured to bend when the housing bends. 
     
     
       11. The electronic device defined in  claim 10  wherein each pigment flake includes a thin-film filter stack that includes at least four dielectric layers. 
     
     
       12. The electronic device defined in  claim 11  wherein each pigment flake has lateral dimensions of 1-30 microns and a thickness of 0.5-4 microns. 
     
     
       13. The electronic device defined in  claim 11  wherein the flexible pixel array comprises an array of organic light-emitting diode pixels. 
     
     
       14. Apparatus, comprising:
 a glass layer; and 
 an infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating on the glass layer that includes pigment flakes in a polymer binder, wherein the pigment flakes include thin-film filter dielectric stacks that are formed from dielectric layers having alternating first and second index-of-refraction values, wherein different portions of the polymer binder across the glass layer have different concentrations of overlapping pigment flakes, and wherein the infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating is characterized by an infrared light transmission at 700-1500 nm of less than 25%. 
 
     
     
       15. The apparatus defined in  claim 14  wherein the glass layer has a curved cross-sectional profile. 
     
     
       16. The apparatus defined in  claim 15  further comprising a vehicle body in which the glass layer is mounted. 
     
     
       17. The apparatus defined in  claim 15  further comprising a building wall in which the glass layer is mounted. 
     
     
       18. The apparatus defined in  claim 14  wherein the flakes have width to thickness ratios of at least ten, wherein the thin-film dielectric stack of each pigment flake includes at least four inorganic dielectric layers, and wherein the infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating is configured to block ultraviolet light.

Description:
This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application No. 62/523,605, filed Jun. 22, 2017, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     This relates generally to coatings and, more particularly, to coatings having flake pigments. 
     BACKGROUND 
     It may sometimes be desirable to form a coating on a transparent substrate. For example, coatings are sometimes formed on display cover glass layers. Coatings can also be formed on windows in buildings and vehicles. 
     If care is not taken, coatings will not have desired properties. For example, light transmission and reflection spectra may not be as desired, substrate strength may be compromised due to the presence of a deposited coating, and/or coating uniformity will be poor due to factors such as substrate curvature. 
     SUMMARY 
     Substrates such as transparent glass layers or other structures may be used to form protective display cover layers, windows, housing structures, camera windows, and other structures. Coatings may be formed on glass display substrates, on pixel arrays such as flexible organic light-emitting diode pixel arrays, on housing structures, on windows, and on other structures. For example, an infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating may be formed on a display layer or other substrate such as a curved substrate or flexible pixel array. 
     Coatings may be formed from a polymer binder that includes pigment flakes. The pigment flakes may be formed by breaking a thin-film interference layer into flakes. Each flake may include a stack of dielectric layers with a pattern of refractive index values selected to adjust the optical properties of the flake. The stack of dielectric layers may be configured to form an infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting optical characteristic for a coating or to provide a coating with other desired spectral properties such as an ultraviolet-light-blocking characteristic. 
     Coatings formed from polymer with pigment flakes may be applied with uniform thickness to curved substrates such as curved windows using liquid polymer coating techniques such as spraying, printing, and dipping, may be applied to glass layers without reducing glass strength, and may be sufficiently flexible to accommodate display flexing (e.g., when the coating is applied to an array of organic light-emitting diode pixels that flexes as a flexible device housing is bent). 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative electronic device having a display with a coating in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional side view of a portion of an illustrative enclosure having a curved window with a coating in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIGS. 3, 4, and 5  are cross-sectional side views of an illustrative foldable electronic device having a display with a coating in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 6  is a graph of light transmission as a function of wavelength for an illustrative coating in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 7  is a graph of light reflectivity as a function of wavelength for an illustrative coating in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 8  is a cross-sectional side view of a thin-film filter stack on a single side of a substrate in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 9  is a cross-sectional side view of thin-film filter stacks on opposing sides of a substrate in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 10  is a cross-sectional side view of a thin-film filter stack following release of the stack from a release layer in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 11  is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative substrate in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 12  is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative flake pigment layer formed from one or more thin-film filter stacks on a substrate such as the substrate of  FIG. 11  in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 13  is a cross-sectional side view of illustrative flake pigments formed by breaking up a flake pigment layer in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 14  is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative pigment flake in a polymer binder layer on a substrate in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 15  is a cross-sectional side view of a flake pigment coating layer with overlapping pigment flakes in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 16  is a graph of light transmission versus wavelength for illustrative single-flake and overlapping dual-layer flake coating regions in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 17  is a flow chart of illustrative operations involved in forming items with flake pigment coatings in accordance with an embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Coatings may be applied to substrates such as clear substrates of glass, plastic, ceramic, crystalline materials such as sapphire, and/or other substrate materials. The coatings may be used to reduce reflections, to adjust transmission and reflection spectra for the substrate, to change the visual appearance of the substrate (e.g., to impart opacity and/or color at particular portions of the light spectrum), and/or to otherwise adjust the optical properties of the substrate and any item into which the substrate is incorporated. Substrates may form parts of displays or housing structures in electronic devices, may form windows, and/or may form other items. In some configurations, substrates may have curved cross-sectional profiles. 
     A cross-sectional side view of an illustrative electronic device of the type that may include substrates with coatings is shown in  FIG. 1 . Electronic device  10  may be a computing device such as a laptop computer, a computer monitor containing an embedded computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, a media player, or other handheld or portable electronic device, a smaller device such as a wrist-watch device, a pendant device, a headphone or earpiece device, a device embedded in eyeglasses or other equipment worn on a user&#39;s head, or other wearable or miniature device, a television, a computer display that does not contain an embedded computer, a gaming device, a navigation device, an embedded system such as a system in which electronic equipment with a display is mounted in a kiosk or automobile, equipment that implements the functionality of two or more of these devices, an accessory (e.g., earbuds, a remote control, a wireless trackpad, etc.), or other electronic equipment. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , device  10  may include components such as display  14 . Display  14  may be mounted in housing  12 . Housing  12 , which may sometimes be referred to as an enclosure or case, may be formed of plastic, glass, ceramics, fiber composites, metal (e.g., stainless steel, aluminum, etc.), other suitable materials, or a combination of any two or more of these materials. Housing  12  may be formed using a unibody configuration in which some or all of housing  12  is machined or molded as a single structure or may be formed using multiple structures (e.g., an internal frame structure, one or more structures that form exterior housing surfaces, etc.). Housing  12  may, if desired, have multiple portions (e.g., first and second rigid portions that are coupled by a hinge). 
     Display  14  may be a touch screen display that incorporates a layer of conductive capacitive touch sensor electrodes or other touch sensor components (e.g., resistive touch sensor components, acoustic touch sensor components, force-based touch sensor components, light-based touch sensor components, etc.) or may be a display that is not touch-sensitive. Display  14  may have a pixel array such as pixel array  16  with an array of pixels  18  and may be protected using an optional display cover layer such as display cover layer  20 . Display cover layer  20  is transparent, so that images on pixel array  16  may be viewed by a user through display cover layer  20  and any transparent coating on layer  20  during operation. Coatings may be formed on display cover layer  20 . Coatings may also be formed on pixel layer  16 . Pixel array  16  may be a liquid crystal display pixel array, an organic light-emitting diode pixel array, a pixel array formed from crystalline semiconductor dies forming light-emitting diode pixels, or other display structures. Display cover layer  20  may be formed from clear glass or other transparent materials (e.g., plastic, ceramic, sapphire or other crystalline materials, etc.). In some configurations for device  10 , display  14  may be omitted. The arrangement of  FIG. 1  in which device  10  includes display  14  is merely illustrative. 
     As shown in the cross-sectional side view of electronic device  10  of  FIG. 1 , electronic device  10  may include internal device components such as devices  26 . Devices  26  may include sensors, integrated circuits, buttons, connectors, and other circuitry and may be mounted on one or more substrates such as substrate  24 . Substrate  24  may be a dielectric carrier such as a molded plastic carrier or a printed circuit. For example, substrate  24  may be a printed circuit such as a rigid printed circuit formed from a material such as fiberglass-filled epoxy or may be a flexible printed circuit formed from a sheet of polyimide or other flexible polymer layer. 
     To adjust the optical properties of structures in device  10 , one or more of the surfaces of the structures in device  10  may be coated with a coating. The coating may have a binder such as a polymer binder and may contain pigments such as flake pigments. The flake pigments may be formed from pieces of a thin-film interference layer and may adjust the optical properties of the applied polymer coating. As shown in  FIG. 1 , this type of coating (coating  22  of  FIG. 1 ) may be applied to a substrate layer such as display cover layer  20 . If desired, coatings such as coating  22  may be applied to other structures in device  10  such as an exposed sidewall or rear wall surface of housing  12  (see, e.g., illustrative coating  22 ′ on the rear surface of device  10 ). In general, coatings such as coating  22  may be applied to outer and/or inner surfaces of substrate  20  or other layers of material (opaque and/or transparent) in device  10  (e.g., housing walls, display cover layers, camera windows, pixel arrays, trackpad members, and/or other structures). In configurations in which coating  22  overlaps display  14 , coating  22  may be used to help block infrared light and therefore reduce thermal loading on display  14  from ambient light, while coating  22  is also sufficiently transparent to visible light wavelengths to allow light from pixel array  16  to pass through coating  22  (e.g., so that images on pixel array  16  are visible to a user). 
       FIG. 2  is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative enclosure  28  with a window formed from a coated transparent substrate (e.g., substrate  20  with coating  22 ). Enclosure  28  may be a structure such as a wall in a building or a body of a vessel (boat, automobile or other vehicle, plane, etc.). Enclosure  28  and the window formed from substrate  20  may enclose interior region  30  (e.g., the inside of a building, vehicle, etc.). In some configurations, enclosure  28  may be opaque and the presence of transparent substrate  20  may help allow ambient light to enter interior  30 . Coating  22  may be formed on the inside or outside of substrate  20  (e.g., to form an infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating and/or other optical coating). As shown in  FIG. 2 , substrate  20  may have a curved cross-sectional profile and therefore may form a convex or concave surface. Coating  22  may be deposited by printing, spraying, dipping, or other coating techniques that are suitable for curved surfaces. In some embodiments, curved substrate  20  of  FIG. 2  may be a curved display cover layer for a wristwatch (e.g., to cover a display on the front face of the watch) and enclosure  28  may be an electronic device housing (e.g., a body of a wristwatch). 
       FIGS. 3, 4, and 5  illustrate how device  10  may be a bendable device having a flexible display. As shown in  FIG. 3 , display  14  of device  10  may be formed from pixel array  16 . Pixel array  16  may be a flexible layer with organic light-emitting diode pixels  18  or other pixels and may be covered with coating  22  (e.g., with or without using a display cover layer such as layer  20  of  FIG. 1 ). In configurations in which the display cover layer is omitted, pixel array  16  may serve as a substrate onto which coating  22  is deposited. Housing  12  may be formed from a flexible material, a material with a flexible portion (e.g., an elastomeric portion overlapping a bend axis), and/or hinge structures. These structures may allow housing  12  to bend (e.g., into a face-to-face display configuration of the type shown in  FIG. 4  and/or into a back-to-back display configuration of the type shown in  FIG. 5 ). Coating  22  (e.g., a coating on pixel array  16  and/or a coating on housing  12  or other layer(s) in device  10 ) may be formed from a polymer containing flake pigments and may be sufficiently flexible to withstand bending during use without cracking or delaminating (see, e.g.,  FIGS. 4 and 5 ). 
     The structures of  FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5  include illustrative substrates (housing walls, building walls, vehicle body structures, electronic device display cover layers, windows, etc.) onto which coating  22  may be applied. If desired, coatings such as coating  22  may be applied to other structures. The structures of  FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5  are merely illustrative. 
     Coating  22  may be configured to block and/or transmit light such as infrared light, visible light, and/or ultraviolet light. As an example, infrared-light-blocking coatings can be used to reduce heat loading in electronic devices, to prevent sunlight from overly heating the interior of a building or vehicle, to prevent infrared ambient light from adversely affecting image sensor performance in a camera, and/or to perform other infrared-light-blocking functions. As another example, visible light transparency for coating  22  may be used to ensure that a camera window is sufficiently transparent to allow a camera to capture satisfactory image, may be used for a display to ensure that the display is efficient and does not overly absorb visible light, may be used to ensure that a window for a building or vehicle is sufficiently transparent for normal use, may be used to ensure that images on a display are visible to a user, etc. In some situations (e.g., building and vehicle windows, device housing applications, etc.) it may be desirable to partially block visible light (e.g., to reduce light transmission by 10%, 50%, or other suitable amount). Ultraviolet light blocking (e.g., reducing the light transmission to less than 50%, less than 25%, or less than 2% at wavelengths of 310-400 nm or other suitable ultraviolet wavelengths) may be used to protect vulnerable components (e.g., pixels  18  in display  14  such as organic light-emitting diode pixel in pixel array  16 ) and/or may be used to reduce human exposure to ultraviolet light. 
     By using thin-film interference filter designs for flake pigments in coating  22 , coating  22  may be provided with desired spectral properties (e.g., a desired light transmission spectrum, a desired light reflection spectrum, and/or a desired light absorption spectrum). 
     In the example of  FIG. 6 , light transmission T of an illustrative coating  22  has been plotted as a function of wavelength for infrared and visible light wavelengths. The corresponding reflectivity R of coating  22  of  FIG. 6  is shown in  FIG. 7 . In this example, coating  22  is an infrared light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting coating. This type of coating may block infrared light (e.g., light at a wavelength of 700 nm or longer than 700 nm such as light at 700-2500 nm) so that transmission T is less than 50%, less than 25%, less than 1%, at least 0.01%, or other suitable amount and so that reflectivity R is at least 50%, at least 75%, at least 99%, less than 99.99%, or other suitable amount. Ultraviolet light may be blocked in this way as well, if desired. This type of coating may also exhibit a visible light transmission (e.g., at 400-700 nm) of at least 50%, at least 75%, at least 99%, less than 99.99%, or other suitable amount and reflectivity R that is less than 50%, less than 25%, less than 1%, at least 0.01%, or other suitable amount. Light transmission T for an infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting configuration of coating  22  may, for example, be characterized by a transmission curve such as curve  34  of  FIG. 6  and light reflection R for this coating  22  may, for example, be characterized by a reflectivity curve such as curve  36  of  FIG. 7 . Other coatings  22  may be formed, if desired (e.g., coatings that are transparent at one or more infrared light wavelengths, that block some or all visible light at certain wavelengths, and/or that transmit or reflect ultraviolet wavelengths). 
     The filtering properties of coating  22  (e.g., the light transmission spectrum of  FIG. 6  and the light reflection spectrum of  FIG. 7 ) may be implemented using pigment flakes formed from thin-film interference filter structures. The pigment flakes may be incorporated into a polymer binder to form coating  22 . The polymer binder may initially be provided in uncured liquid form, allowing coating  22  to be deposited using deposition techniques such as spraying, printing (ink-jet printing, pad printing, screen printing, etc.), dipping, etc. 
       FIGS. 8, 9, and 10  how illustrative pigment material may be formed from thin-film interference filter structures. Thin-film interference filter layer  42  of  FIGS. 8, 9, and 10  includes multiple thin-film layers such as layers  38  (e.g., layers of 0.05-1.5 microns in thickness, at least 0.1 microns in thickness, at least 0.15 microns in thickness, less than 1 micron in thickness, etc.). There may be at least two layers  38 , at least three layers  38 , at least four layers  38 , at least five layers  38 , at least seven layers  38 , at least nine layers  38 , or other suitable number of layers  38  in layer  42 . Layers  38  may have any suitable thicknesses (e.g., quarter wavelength thicknesses, half-wavelength thicknesses, other sub-wavelength thicknesses, thickness of more than a wavelength, etc.). 
     In the example of  FIG. 8 , layers  38  form a thin-film interference filter on an upper surface of substrate  40 . Substrate  40  may be formed from a layer of polymer (e.g., acrylic or other material with an index of refraction of about 1.5 or other suitable refractive index value), an inorganic dielectric layer, or other suitable substrate material (e.g., a layer of transparent polymer or inorganic material, etc.) and may have any suitable thickness (e.g., at least 0.1 microns, at least 0.5 microns, less than 10 microns, etc.). In the example of  FIG. 9 , layers  38  have been formed on opposing surfaces of substrate  40 . If desired, substrate  40  may be removed during processing. This type of arrangement is shown in  FIG. 10 . As shown in  FIG. 10 , thin-film interference layer  42  may be formed from layers  38  that have been deposited on a release liner substrate and subsequently removed, thereby forming a stack of layers  38  for thin-film interference layer  42  that are not supported by substrate  40 . 
     Layers  38  of  FIGS. 8, 9, and 10  may include dielectric materials with different index of refraction values. The dielectric materials may include inorganic materials such as silicon oxide, titanium oxide, aluminum oxide, other metal oxides, silicon nitride, other nitrides, oxynitrides, or other inorganic materials and may include organic materials such as polymers. Each different material may have a different respective index of refraction. The thicknesses and indices of refraction of thin-film layers  38  in each thin-film interference filter layer may be configured to impart desired optical properties to layers  38  (e.g. to form mirror coating layers, to form infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-passing layers, to form layers that block ultraviolet light, to form layers with characteristics of the type show in  FIGS. 6 and 7 , etc.). The thin-film stacks of dielectric materials of differing index of refraction values (layers  38 ) may have alternating high-index-of-refraction and low-index-of-refraction values, patterns of layers with first, second, and third different indices of refraction and/or patterns of layers with four different refractive index values, etc. and may, in general, have any suitable transmission, reflection, and absorption spectral properties. 
     After forming a thin-film filter layer such as layer  42  of  FIG. 8, 9 , or  10 , layer  42  may be broken into pigment flakes (e.g., by grinding, crushing, and/or other techniques).  FIG. 11  shows how substrate  40  may appear before coating substrate  40  with layers  38 .  FIG. 12  shows how layer  42  may appear after coating one or both sides of substrate  40  with thin-film stacks formed from layers  38 . Layers  38  may also be deposited on substrate  40  and subsequently released from substrate  40  to form layer  42  of  FIG. 10 . Layer  42  may serve as a layer of pigment material for forming pigment flakes for inclusion in coating  22 .  FIG. 13  shows illustrative pigment flakes  42 F that have been formed by breaking up layer  42  into small pieces. 
       FIG. 14  shows how flakes such as illustrative flake  42 F may be incorporated into polymer binder material  54  to form coating  22 . Flakes such as flake  42 F may have one or more layers (e.g. layers  38  of  FIGS. 8, 9, and 10  and, if desired, substrate layer  40 ). Layers  38  may be configured to form thin-film interference filter structures that provide coating  22  with desired optical properties. Coating  22  may be formed on one or both sides of a supporting structure such as substrate layer  20  (e.g. a display cover layer, other display layers such as pixel array  16 , housing layers such as a rear glass housing layer and/or housing sidewalls, a window in a building or vehicle, a camera window in an electronic device, or another suitable substrate layer). 
     Polymer binder  54  may initially be a liquid and may be solidified by thermal curing, ultraviolet light curing, or other curing techniques. After curing, flakes such as flake  42 F will be held in place. Flake  42 F may have a thin plate-like shape and polymer binder  54  may be applied in a relatively thin layer to substrate  20 , so that flake  42 F may tend to be oriented parallel to the surface of substrate  20  as shown in  FIG. 14 . With one illustrative configuration, the lateral dimensions D of flake  42 F may be about 1-30 microns, at least 0.5 microns, at least 1 micron, at least 2 microns, at least 4 microns, at least 8 microns, at least 15 microns, at least 20 microns, less than 50 microns, less than 25 microns, or other suitable size. Thickness T 1  of flake  42  may be about 0.5 to 4 microns, at least 0.5 microns, at least 0.3 microns, at least 1 micron, less than 5 microns, less than 3 microns, etc. (e.g. so that the aspect ratio D/T 1  of flake  42  is at least 5, at least 10, at least 20, less than 5000, or other suitable value). The thickness T 2  of polymer binder  54  and coating  22  may be at least 1 micron, at least 3 microns, at least 6 microns, at least 10 microns, at least 20 microns, less than 500 microns, less than 150 microns, or less than 50 microns (as examples). 
     Polymer binder  54  may be formed from clear acrylic, clear epoxy, or other clear polymer material and/or may be formed from a polymer layer or other material that includes dyes, particles of pigment, and/or other structures to impart a desired bulk optical property to binder  54  (e.g., a dye with a particular color cast, an opaque pigment such as carbon black, etc.). Configurations in which binder  54  is transparent may sometimes be described herein as an example. 
     Binder  54  may have an index of refraction of 1.4-1.55, at least 1.35, less than 1.6, or other suitable value. The refractive indices of outermost layers  52  and  50  in the dielectric thin-film stack of layers forming flake  42 F may differ from that of layer  54 , so that desired thin-film interference effects are achieved when flake  42 F is immersed in polymer  54  (e.g., the index of refraction of layer  54  may be taken into account when determining a desired thin-film interference filter configuration for flakes  42 F). 
     Flakes  42 F may overlap by varying amounts in coating  22 . For example, some areas of coating  22  such as area A 1  of  FIG. 15  may have only a single non-overlapped flake  42 F between the upper and lower surfaces of layer  54 . Other areas such as area A 2  may contain two overlapping flakes  42 F. Illustrative area A 3  of  FIG. 15  has three overlapping flakes  42 F. Other areas of coating  22  may have four or more overlapping flakes  42 F or may be free of flakes  42 F. 
     If desired, the thickness of coating  22  may be selected to control flake overlap (e.g., so that the average number of overlapping flakes  42 F is 1.5-2.5 overlapping flakes per unit area, at least 1.7 overlapping flakes per unit area, less than 2.8 overlapping flakes per unit area, etc.). When flakes  42 F overlap, transmission and reflection are affected accordingly. For example, if a single flake  42 F has a light transmission characteristic such as curve TM 1  of  FIG. 16  (with, for example, an 80% visible light transmission), then two overlapping flakes  42 F will collectively have a light transmission characteristic such as curve TM 2  of  FIG. 16  (with, for example, a 64% visible light transmission). The thickness of coating  22  can be selected to take flake overlap into account and thereby ensure that the desired optical properties for coating  22  are achieved. 
     Illustrative operations involved in forming items with coatings such as coating  22  are shown in  FIG. 17 . 
     During the operations of block  60 , physical vapor deposition techniques, chemical vapor deposition techniques, sol-gel techniques, and/or other techniques for depositing layers  38  are used to deposit a desired thin-film dielectric stack of layers  38  on substrate  40 . If desired, substrate  40  may be a release liner and layers  38  may be separated from substrate  40 . 
     After forming thin-film layer  42  from layers  38  (and substrate  40 , if present), layer  42  can be broken into flakes  42 F (block  62 ). 
     Flakes  42  can then be mixed into liquid polymer binder  54  and coated onto a structure such as substrate  20  during the operations of block  64  (e.g. using liquid coating techniques suitable for paint and/or ink coatings such as spraying, printing, dip coating, etc.). Ultraviolet light curing, visible light curing, and/or other curing techniques such as thermal curing may be used in curing binder  54  and forming a durable coating  22  with desired optical properties. 
     In configurations in which coating  22  is formed on a substrate such as a glass layer in an electronic device housing or display, the use of liquid polymer coating techniques may help avoid direct physical vapor deposition of a stack of dielectric layers onto substrate  20 , which could weaken the substrate. In flexible substrate applications such as flexible display device  10  of  FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 , the use of a polymer-based coating such as coating  22  may allow display  14  and coating  22  to bend without cracking coating  22 . Curved substrates such as substrate (window)  20  of  FIG. 2  may benefit from liquid polymer coating techniques, which may be capable of forming more uniform coating layers than when using coating techniques such as physical vapor deposition techniques to form a coating on a curved substrate. 
     The foregoing is merely illustrative and various modifications can be made to the described embodiments. The foregoing embodiments may be implemented individually or in any combination.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20180305
Publication Date: 20201201
Grant Date: 20201201
Priority Date: 20170622
Inventors: WILSON, JAMES R.
ROGERS, MATTHEW S.
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "C09C1/00", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10F39/8053", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10F39/805", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C09C1/00", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C09C1/0015", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/1351", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C03C2217/485", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C09C1/0015", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C03C2217/74", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/135", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C03C17/007", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133305", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/135", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L27/3225", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F1/133305", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C09C1/0015", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C03C2217/74", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L51/5284", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L51/529", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "G02F2001/1351", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L2251/5338", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L51/0097", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C03C2217/485", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H01L51/5253", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C09C1/00", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "C03C17/007", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K77/111", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/00", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K2102/311", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K77/111", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K50/844", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K2102/311", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K50/865", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K50/87", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/8792", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/873", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/873", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H10K59/8792", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 62784009