Apple Inc.

Hao Dong

Jean-Pierre Simon Guillou

Tyler Robin Kakuda

Michael J Brown

Yi Qiao

Ying-Chih Wang

Shaorui Yang

Warren S Rieutort-Louis

Paul C Kelley

Christopher Edward Glazowski

Elizabeth C Porter

Christopher D Prest

Steven Porter Hotelling

David A Pakula

Wei Hsin Yao

Michael Benjamin Wittenberg

Daniel William Jarvis

Erik G De Jong

Chaohao Wang

Sawyer Isaac Cohen

Marwan Rammah

Parin Patel

John J Baker

Ehsan Khajeh

Andrew W Joyce

Richard Hung Dinh

Zhen Zhang

Rasamy Phouthavong

David Andrew Doyle

Stephen Theodore Schooley

Arash Akhavan Fomani

Meng Chi Lee

Douglas G Fournier

Yaocheng Zhang

Paul U Leutheuser

Karan S Jain

Izhar Zahoor Ahmed

Yingying Tang

Eric W Bates

Supratik Datta

Daniel J Barrett

Daniel P Kumar

Jingjing Xu

Ross D Arriens

Di Liu

Kiran S Pillai

Gang Ning

Jenna Dancy

James P Landry

Eng Eow Goh

Ian T Clark

Shaowei Qin

Kikue S Burnham

Jason C Law

Bulong Wu

Deepak Sharma

Timothy C Wulff

Salman Karbasivalashani

Isabel S Gueble

Siddharth Avachat

Sarah Trabia

Benjamin R Pope

Chengrui Zhang

Michael Sipper

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 case for an electronic device can include a case body including an exterior surface and an interior surface, the interior surface being positioned opposite the exterior surface. The case can additionally include a button body positioned at least partially within the case body between the exterior surface and the interior surface, the button body being movable inward and outward relative to the case body along an axis of button travel. The case can further include a biasing structure having a contact surface configured to contact the button body, the biasing structure configured to bias the button body toward the interior surface along the axis of button travel.

Computing device case

An electronic device may have pixels that form an active area for a flexible display layer. An inactive area that is free of pixels may surround the active area. One or more edges of the flexible display layer may be bent around respective bend axes. The display layer may also have one or more unbent edges in which the inactive area and active area of the display have a planar shape. An image transport layer may have an input surface that receives the image and an output surface to which the image is transported. The image transport layer may be formed from a coherent fiber bundle or a layer of Anderson localization material. The coherent fiber bundle may have straight fibers that run parallel to each other in a vertical direction that is parallel to a surface normal of a central portion of the display layer.

Electronic devices having vertical image transport layers

An electronic device includes a housing that defines an aperture, and a display assembly positioned in the aperture. The display assembly can include a display layer having a first portion, and a second portion bending at least partially below the first portion. The first portion and the second portion can define a bend volume, and a potting material can be disposed in the bend volume, such that the potting material contacts the first portion and the second portion. An internal enclosure can be contoured to the display assembly.

Display panel bend reinforcement

An electronic device may have a housing with a display. The display may be overlapped by an image transport layer such as a coherent fiber bundle or layer of Anderson localization material. The image transport layer may have an input surface that receives an image from the display and a corresponding output surface to which the image is transported. The input surface and output surface may have different shapes. A wristwatch device may, as an example, have a rectangular or hexagonal input surface and may have an output surface such as a rectangular output surface with rounded corners or a circular output surface. A region of the output surface may have compound curvature. A portion of the image transport layer may protrude laterally over an inactive portion of the display.

Electronic devices with shape-transforming displays

An electronic device may have a display layer for displaying images. An optical coupling layer having an input surface that receives light from the display panel may convey the light from the input surface to an output surface. The output surface may have different dimensions than the display layer and may have any desired shape. To account for the displacement of light between the active area and the outer surface of the optical coupling layer and to ensure the output image is perceived with the desired distortion, image data may be rendered for the output surface then modified to account for the distortion and displacement that will occur later when the image is transported by the optical coupling layer from the display active area to the output surface of the optical coupling layer. Image distortion control circuitry may modify the rendered image data based on a distortion map.

Distortion control in displays with optical coupling layers

An electronic device may have a display with pixels configured to display an image. An image transport layer may be formed from a coherent fiber bundle or Anderson localization material. The image transport layer may overlap the pixels and may have an input surface that receives the image from the pixels and a corresponding output surface on which the received image is viewable. The image transport layer may form an exterior surface of the electronic device or may be overlapped by a transparent cover layer. Various methods such as swelling, piping, and slumping may be used to process fibers and form image transport layers. A fiber bundle that is used to form an image transport layer may include fibers that have varying properties.

Methods for forming image transport layers

An electronic device may have a display panel for displaying images. A display cover layer having curved portions may overlap the display panel. An image transport layer having an input surface that receives light from the display panel may convey the light from the input surface to an output surface adjacent to an inner surface of the display cover layer. The image transport layer may include fibers with different lengths to form a region of the output surface with a curved profile. Each fiber in the coherent fiber bundle may have a respective output face. The output face of each fiber in the curved edge region of the image transport layer may be parallel to the display panel or may be angled towards the center of the image transport layer. Image distortion control circuitry may modify image data to control the perceived distortion of the display.

Electronic devices having displays with image transport layers

An electronic device may have a display overlapped by a cover layer. Portions of the surface of the display and cover layer may have curved profiles. The display may include a flexible substrate and may have bent edge portions protruding from a central region. Gaps may be formed between regions of pixels on a common substrate or between separate display panels. An image transport layer formed from a coherent fiber bundle or a layer of Anderson localization material configured to exhibit two-dimensional transverse Anderson localization of light may have an input surface that receives an image from adjacent display pixels and an output surface on which the image is displayed. The output surface may have a curved profile and may exhibit compound curvature. The input surface may have a profile with curved portions or other shapes. Image transport layers can be used to cover gaps between sets of pixels.

Electronic devices having displays with curved surfaces and image transport layers

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Hao Dong