Apple Inc.

Leland Stanford Junior University

Daniel Jacob Benjamin Bechstein

John Stephen Smith

Blake R Marshall

Vipin Ayanoor-Vitikkate

Robert Ubo Liu

Elvis Mwenda Kibiti

Shan X Wang

Teera Songatikamas

Zhibin Wang

Wang Chung Alston Cheung

MohammadAli Khorrami

Joyan Gratian Sanctis

Jared A Brauner

Lindsay Diane Rego Corbet

Ying Cao

Nitin Sitaraman

Ullas Chandra Sekhar Pazhayaveetil

Jason Chueh-Ren Hu

Siddharth Shekar

Rexford J Garland

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) robust design for an input device such as a stylus is disclosed. The input device can include one or more components, such as one or more Schottky diodes, that can be damaged by ESD events. To reduce the likelihood of damage to sensitive components, the parasitic capacitance between sensitive conductive paths and reference ground paths of the input device that could otherwise provide electrostatic discharge paths can be reduced (arranging current limiting resistance at specific locations among sensitive components, creating physical separation between sensitive conductive paths and reference ground paths), shielding can be added to shield the sensitive electronics from ESD pulses, and high dielectric breakdown material can be added to prevent ESD pulse entry or exit of not otherwise protected circuit parts.

Electrostatic discharge robust design for input device

An input device such as a stylus for providing input to a touch-sensitive surface with reduced sensitivity to leakage current variations over temperature is disclosed. A passive stylus may include one or more diodes in parallel with one or more bleed resistors. The non-linear load of the diode and resistor network can be operative to provide a stylus electric field in response to a stimulation signal from an electronic device that can be capacitively coupled to, and sensed by, the electronic device. The signal sensed by the electronic device can be a function of the total leakage current, which can vary greatly as a function of temperature and frequency. In order to improve performance, the diode and resistor network, including the bleed resistor(s) and diodes within that network, can be selected and/or designed to provide a reduced variation in the leakage current and more accurate stylus detection.

Reducing sensitivity to leakage variation for passive stylus

In some examples, a stylus can include a conductive shield. In some examples, the conductive shield can include a plurality of traces along an edge of a printed circuit board (PCB) including the stylus circuitry. In some examples, the conductive shield can include a shield can coupled to the PCB and disposed around the components of the stylus circuitry. In some examples, the conductive shield can include a hollow portion into which the stylus circuitry can be disposed and a solid portion that can act as a reference electrode. In some examples, the conductive shield can include a hollow sleeve disposed around the stylus circuitry. In some examples, the conductive sleeve can be attached to the PCB. In some examples, the conductive sleeve can be disposed between layers of a housing of the stylus. In some examples, the conductive sleeve can be integrated with the stylus housing.

Shield electrode for input device

An integrated microfluidic biochip is provided that includes a microfluidic device, where the microfluidic device includes hollow structures, where at least one the hollow structure includes an output at a bottom surface of the microfluidic device, and a sensor plate, where the sensor plate comprises a plurality of independent surface sensors, where the microfluidic device is sealably attachable to the sensor plate, where the hollow structure output abuts the surface sensor when the microfluidic device is attached to the sensor plate.

Compartmentalized integrated biochips

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Daniel Jacob Benjamin Bechstein