Apple Inc.

Daniel J Barrett

Erik G De Jong

Sameer Pandya

Kiran S Pillai

Xuan Liu

Michael Benjamin Wittenberg

Daniel William Jarvis

Jean-Pierre Simon Guillou

Christopher Matthew Werner

Lucy Elizabeth Browning

Maegan K Spencer

Brad G Boozer

Marwan Rammah

Tyler Robin Kakuda

Paul Choiniere

David Andrew Doyle

Yi Qiao

Rasamy Phouthavong

Jia Liu

James G Horiuchi

Daniel J Hiemstra

Amin M Younes

Jingjing Xu

Elizabeth C Porter

Eugene H Fox

James P Landry

Christopher D Guichet

Dakota A Bass

Adam J Brinkman

Shang L Tsuei

Jacquelynn M Pok

Dale N Memering

Christopher D Jones

Michael J Brown

Mario Martinis

Hao Dong

Tyler A Marshall

Di Liu

Jung Yun Seuh

Timothy D Burks

An electronic device may have a display mounted in a housing. The display may have a display panel with an array of pixels on a flexible substrate. A display cover layer may overlap the display panel. The flexible substrate may have a protruding portion that forms a tail. The tail may be coupled to a printed circuit on which a display driver integrated circuit and/or other circuitry is mounted. When the display is mounted in the housing, the tail may be bent back on itself to create a bend. The bend may be embedded in a molded polymer member. The molded polymer member may be attached to the housing with adhesive and may directly contact an inner surface of the display cover layer.

Electronic devices with molded display mounting structures

An electronic device may include a display, a cover layer overlapping the display, and a housing have housing sidewalls. An encapsulant material may surround at least part of the display and may be used to couple the cover layer to the housing sidewalls. A rigid outer material having a higher elastic modulus than the encapsulant material may also be used to couple the cover layer to the housing sidewalls. The rigid outer material may be a molded material that surrounds an outer perimeter of the encapsulant, or the rigid outer material may be a metal or plastic frame member having a C-shaped cross-section or other geometry. The display may overlap the housing sidewall. The encapsulant may absorb mechanical stresses on the cover layer to protect the display, whereas the rigid outer material may transfer mechanical stresses on the cover layer to the housing.

Electronic devices with display support structures

A portable or wearable electronic device can include a device housing defining an internal volume, and an electronic component disposed in the internal volume. The electronic component can be an input component and can have a component housing. The electronic device can also include an antenna feed assembly disposed in the internal volume. The antenna feed assembly can include a conductive grounding component electrically connected to the component housing and the device housing, and an antenna feed component electrically connected to the grounding component and disposed adjacent to the component housing. The conductive grounding component can surround a first major surface and a second major surface of the component housing.

Electronic device

An electronic device may have a display, a display cover layer, and an image transport layer formed from a coherent fiber bundle. The coherent fiber bundle may be placed between the display and the display cover layer. A gap may separate the coherent fiber bundle from the display cover layer. Adhesive in the gap may attach the coherent fiber bundle to the display cover layer. Molded polymer may be coupled to a bent edge of the display, a portion of the display with backside contacts, or components coupled to the backside contacts or other portions of the display. The molded polymer may support the coherent fiber bundle relative to the cover layer. The molded polymer may be molded to an inner surface of the cover layer and may be used to receive fasteners or otherwise facilitate mounting of housing structures and components in the device.

Electronic devices with coherent fiber bundles and molded polymer

An electronic device may have a display mounted in a housing. The display may have a pixel array that produces images. A display cover layer may overlap the pixel array. The display cover layer may have a planar central area surrounded by a peripheral edge area with a curved cross-sectional profile. From an on-axis viewing angle, an image on the pixel array is fully viewable through the planar central area and the peripheral edge area. From an off-axis viewing angle, the image is partly viewable through the peripheral edge area and not through the central area. To avoid an undesired color cast in the partly viewable image seen through the peripheral edge area of the display cover layer, the display may be provided with color cast compensation structures such as a guest-host liquid crystal layer that exhibits an anisotropic colored light absorption characteristic, a diffuser layer, and/or other optical structures.

Electronic devices with curved display surfaces

An electronic device may have light-emitting devices. A light-emitting device may include light-emitting diodes, a display, or other components that emit visual output. One or more image transport layers may be included in the electronic device. An image transport layer may have an input surface that receives an image and an output surface to which the image transport layer transports the image for viewing by a user. The image transport layers may have areas with compound curvature and other shapes. Deformed image transport layer structures such as deformed fibers in a coherent fiber bundle may be configured to hide gaps in displays and other structures. Displays may include light detectors that serve as a two-dimensional touch sensor. The touch sensor may detect touch input on an output surface of an image transport layer. Image transport layer material may be incorporated into buttons, elongated housings, wearable devices, and other equipment.

An electronic device may have a display and other optical components such as optical sensors. The display and other components may be overlapped by chemically strengthened glass coherent fiber bundles. The surfaces of a coherent fiber bundle may include ion-exchanged glass that places theses surfaces under compressive stress. In some configurations, the coherent fiber bundle is symmetrically stressed and has equal amounts of compressive stress on opposing surfaces. In other configurations, the coherent fiber bundle is asymmetrically stressed and has more compressive stress on one surface than the other. The coherent fiber bundle may have areas with curved cross-sectional profiles, planar areas, and/or areas with compound curvature. Sensor windows may be formed in the coherent fiber bundle that are surrounded by an opaque area. When overlapping a display, the coherent fiber bundle may serve as a display cover glass layer.

Electronic devices with chemically strengthened coherent fiber bundles

Embodiments are directed to a portable electronic device having a substantially concealed barometric vent. The vent may be used to equalize air pressure within the enclosure while forming a barrier between external contaminants, moisture, and so on and various internal component and assemblies of the device. In one embodiment, the vent may include a screen configured to impede ingress of particulates and an air-permeable membrane configured to impede ingress of moisture.

Concealed barometric vent for an electronic device

Growing community of inventors

Redwood City, CA, United States of America

Daniel J Barrett