Apple Granted Patent: Non-Destructive Stress Profile Determination in Chemically Tempered Glass

Apple has been granted a patent today for their invention relating to apparatus, systems and methods for evaluating and/or improving strength of thin cover glass for consumer electronic devices such as the iPhone and iPad. Optical coherence tomography analysis of strengthened glass can be used to evaluate its strength characteristics. For example, optical coherence tomography analysis may reveal fine details of a residual stress profile within chemically strengthened cover glass.

Apple's FIG. 7D is a partial block diagram of apparatus for ultrahigh-resolution polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography analysis; FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a process for optical coherence tomography analysis; and FIG. 9 s a flow diagram of a process for controlling parameters of chemical processing for strengthening cover glass.

Apple's patent shares common ground and some patent figures with another Apple invention that we covered in June 2013. We covered that invention in a report tilted "Apple Invents New System to Strengthen Thin Glass for iDevices."

Apple credits Eli Sheldon, Edward Byun, Michael Lintz, Jayesh Gorasia, and Raphael Cherney as the inventors of granted patent 8,873,028 which was originally filed in Q2 2011 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. To review today's granted patent claims and details, see Apple's patent.

Apple Granted Patent for Halogen-Free Flame Retardant Material

Apple states in their newly granted patent that only about 12% of plastics used today contain flame retardants. An increased use of flame retardants would improve the safety of electrical wiring and electronic devices, and therefore reduce the number of fires caused by electronic devices.

Halogenated flame retardants have been found to be effective in many plastics. However, environmental and health concerns have caused halogenated flame retardants to be less desirable for electronic devices, and they are being increasingly regulated.

Apple's granted patent generally relates to an invention of a composite resin molded article having excellent flame retardancy, electric insulation properties, and crack resistance that produces only negligible amounts of toxic substances during incineration, if any at all. More importantly, the invention provides resins that are halogen-free flame retardant.

This new material could be found in personal electronic devices such as personal computers, the MacBook Pro, the iPhone, iPad, iPod and other devices and wires as illustrated below.

Apple credits Jean Lee as the inventors of granted patent 8,871,843 which was originally filed in Q4 2009 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. To review today's granted patent claims and details, see Apple's patent.

Apple Granted Patent: Key Management using Security Enclave Processor

Apple has been granted a patent today for their invention relating to the field of systems on a chip (SOCs), and more particularly to security on SOCs and devices that employ SOCs. Apple notes that secure services may include ensuring that the use of the system is available to authorized users as well, and authenticating authorized users. This is used in conjunction with Apple Pay, as Apple notes that the system could be used for financial management and transactions.

Apple's patent FIG. 10 is a block diagram of one embodiment of an encryption circuit for managing keys using a wrapping key.

Today's granted patent is associated with both a patent application that we covered back in November 2013 and a granted patent that we just covered this past September.

Apple credits Stephen Polzin, Fabrice Gautier, Mitchell Alder, Conrad Sauerwald and Michael Brouwer as the inventors of granted patent 8,873,747 which was originally filed in Q and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. To review today's granted patent claims and details, see Apple's patent.

Apple Granted Five Design Patents Today

Apple was granted five design patents today. The main design was one for a power adapter as noted below.

The other designs were for a device, a user interface and two icons (one and two).

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today

A Note for Tech Sites Covering our Report: We ask tech sites covering our report to kindly limit the use of our graphics to one image. Thanking you in advance for your cooperation.

Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 8pm MST and sporadically on the weekend.