While Huawei is a popular smartphone outside the US and especially in China, waterproofing isn't a feature considered as one their strong suits according to Digital Trends and Tech.Co. Of course opinions widely vary. Last week the U.S. Patent Office posted a patent application from Huawei that is deadly focused on improving waterproofing for future mobile devices.
In Huawei's patent background they describe the current problem their invention is to overcome:
"In the prior art, a fluoride liquid for waterproofing is coated on a main board of an electronic device by using a dispenser, and then the main board and components of the electronic device such as housings, a keyboard and a display screen are assembled, thereby implementing the waterproof design of the electronic device.
However, in the foregoing method, a gap exists between the housings of the assembled electronic device. Although the fluoride liquid for waterproofing is already coated on the main board, water can still enter the main board through the gap between the housings. If water stays in the housings for a long time, the fluoride liquid on the main board is caused to lose efficacy, and a fault such as circuit board damage occurs. Therefore, waterproof reliability of the electronic device in the prior art is poor."
Huawei describes their invention for waterproof this way: "A waterproofing method for an electronic device may be applied to a waterproof design of an electronic device such as a mobile phone, a camera, a tablet computer, or a removable storage device.
Before the electronic device is assembled, silane is coated on an inner wall of a first housing and an inner wall of a second housing, and then the first housing, the second housing, and a main board are assembled. "
Silane is also called silicon tetrahydride. It's a gas with an unpleasant odor, SiH 4, soluble in water: used as a doping agent for semiconductors in the production of solid-state devices.
Huawei further notes that "Fluoride is injected into a cavity of the electronic device through a liquid inlet hole on the first housing. An integral continuous waterproofing membrane is formed on the inner walls of the first housing and the second housing of the electronic device through chemical reaction between the silane and the fluoride.
The integral continuous waterproofing membrane is attached to the inner wall of the first housing and the inner wall of the second housing, and fills a gap between the first housing and the second housing. In this way, water is prevented from entering the cavity of the electronic device and the main board is completely isolated from the outside, thereby improving waterproof reliability of the electronic device.
Specifically, Huawei's patent FIG. 2B above is a schematic structural diagram of S102 presented in patent FIG. 1's flow chart. in the embodiment provided in FIG. The first and second housings (#21 & #22) are coated with silane and the main board is assembled. The fluoride is then injected into the cavity of the electronic device through the liquid inlet hole (#25) on the first housing. The fluoride in this embodiment may be a C4 fluorocarbon or a C8 fluorocarbon (for example, polyfluorooctane or fluorinated polyol). Functions of the phone such as such as its communications or a playback function is not affected by the fluoride.
The liquid inlet hole (#25) may have a diameter ranging from 0.5 millimeter to 2 millimeters. The fluoride may be injected into the cavity by using a pressure spray method, such as syringe injection, spray gun injection, ejector pump spray, or jet vacuum ejector spray. During pressure spray, spray pressure may be pounds per square inch (pounds per square inch, psi for short) to 1000 psi.
Huawei's patent application that was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week was originally filed in July 2018. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of this waterproofing method that may be used in future Huawei smartphones is unknown at this time.
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