Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 56 newly granted utility patents for Apple Inc. In this particular report we briefly cover textured glass or iPhone and iPad. And as always, we wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple this week.

Chemically Strengthened and Textured Glass Housing Member

On June 13^th, Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple wins a patent for an Abrasion-Resistant Back Panel made of Glass or Metal for possible future iPhones, iPads & MacBooks."

Today, Apple was granted a patent from another engineering team working on a slightly different angle on the same theme titled "Chemically Strengthened and Textured Glass Housing Member."

The patent covers a glass member for a housing of an electronic device may include an aluminosilicate glass substrate defining a first surface of the glass member, the first surface having a first surface roughness, a fused composite coating bonded to a portion of the aluminosilicate glass substrate and defining a second surface of the glass member, the second surface having a second surface roughness greater than the first surface roughness, a first ion-exchanged layer extending into the glass member and through the fused composite coating, and a second ion-exchanged layer extending into the glass member from the first surface.

The fused composite coating may include an amorphous glass matrix and a crystalline material dispersed in the amorphous glass matrix. The crystalline material may define a tactile texture along the second surface. The second ion-exchanged layer may extend into the aluminosilicate glass substrate. The first surface roughness may have an average surface roughness (Ra) between about 0.1 microns and about 3 microns.

Apple's patent FIG. 1B illustrates an iPhone with a textured glass finish; FIG. 2A depicts a partial cross-sectional view of a glass member having a textured surface; FIG. 2B depicts a detailed view of a portion of the glass member of FIG. 2A; and FIG. 2C depicts a detail view of a portion of the glass member of FIG. 2A.

Apple's patent FIG. 6 above illustrates an example textured glass member #600 that has a fused composite coating over only a localized portion of the glass member of an iPad. 

For finer details, review Apple's granted patent 11691912. Apple was also granted a second patent (11696397) relating to patterned bonded glass that you could review here.

Would like to see the iPhone with textured back glass? Send in your comments on our Twitter Feed.

Today’s Remaining Granted Patents