Apple Inc.

Other

Brad Lee Patton

Anthony Joseph Aiello

Jesse T Dybenko

Keith J Hendren

John M Brock

Thomas W Wilson, Jr

Craig C Leong

James J Niu

Shimon Elkayam

Alejandro Lara Ascorra

Omar Sze Leung

Asif Hussain

Jonathan L Berk

Eric Andrew Knopf

Eric G Smith

Arash Naghib Lahouti

Karen Y Cheng

Richard A Herms

Steven J Sfarzo

Trevor J Edmonds

Kwonil D Fleischman

Electronic devices have peripheral drive centrifugal fans having smaller hubs and increased air flows to manage heat levels within the electronic device. A peripheral drive centrifugal fan includes a fan housing, an impeller including a plurality of blades, and a plurality of stacked inductor groups radially disposed about the impeller. Some of the blades have magnetically active portions. Each stacked inductor group includes first and second coils configured to impart a variable magnetic force to the magnetically active portion of a blade to drive the impeller along a rotational direction. The first and second coils can be selectively energizable independently from each other to provide greater control of the impeller.

Peripheral drive centrifugal fan

In an exemplary electronic device with a cooling fan, a fan assembly is attached to a keyboard assembly of the electronic device. The fan assembly includes an impeller at least partially inside a fan enclosure. The fan enclosure has, on a surface, an inlet opening and an external protrusion. The electronic device further includes a bottom case. The fan assembly is positioned between the keyboard assembly and the bottom case and oriented such that the inlet opening and the external protrusion face the bottom case. The external protrusion maintains a passage between the fan enclosure and the bottom case that allows air to enter the inlet opening and also resists interference between the rotating impeller and the stationary bottom case.

Electronic device with cooling fan

A method to reduce acoustic noise in a cooling fan motor is disclosed. The method includes reducing the slew rate of a PWM (pulse width modulation) voltage waveform applied to energize a coil of the fan motor. This slew rate reduction results in lower mechanical vibrations and acoustic noise in the fan motor. In one embodiment, the slew rate reduction is performed during startup of the fan motor, when the motor is spinning slowly and there is little air flow noise. In another embodiment, the slew rate reduction is not performed during high speed operation of the fan motor, when the fan motor is spinning very fast and air flow noise masks the motor noise. In one embodiment, there is variable slew rate control depending on the speed of the fan motor.

Method of controlling start-up noise in BLDC (brushless direct current) fan motors

An input device configured to communicate with a computing device includes at least one keycap, a support mechanism operably connected to the keycap and configured to move the keycap from a first position to a second position, a feature plate operably connected to the support mechanism, and a sensing member. The sensing member is configured to detect at least one of a change of position of the at least one keycap, a speed of the at least one keycap, an amount of force applied to the at least one keycap, or a location of a finger. The sensing member may be a capacitive sensor. In some embodiments, the input device may not include the support mechanism and the sensing member may be configured to detect the location of a finger regardless whether or not the keycap moves.

Keyboard with position sensing mechanism

In a first embodiment, an input device includes at least one keycap, a support mechanism configured to move the keycap from a first position to a second position, a feature plate having at least one anchoring mechanism operably connected to the support mechanism, and an illumination panel. The illumination panel is positioned between the at least one keycap and the feature plate. The at least one anchoring member extends through a portion of the illumination panel. In a second embodiment, an input device includes a keycap, a support mechanism configured to move the keycap, a support plate operably connected to the support mechanism, and an illumination panel. The illumination panel includes a light source, a light guide, and a frame substantially surrounding the light guide. Light illuminated from the light source is directed by the light guide and the frame towards the keycap.

Illuminated keyboard

One embodiment of a display backlight driver integrated circuit can be configured for operation in at least two different ways. A first method transfers data from an EEPROM to hardware registers prior to regular operation. A second method also transfers data from an EEPROM to registers. However, hardware registers can be overwritten with data accepted from a control bus, prior to regular operation. A keyboard driver IC can detect the presence or absence of a cable to an LED. If the cable is absent, the driver IC will not supply power for the LED. One embodiment of a keyboard and display backlight control system can be configured to allow substantially independent operation.

Display backlight driver IC configuration

Detection circuit for keyboard cable

Growing community of inventors

Campbell, CA, United States of America

Brad Lee Patton