Apple Inc.

Marwan Rammah

David A Pakula

Daniel William Jarvis

Lee E Hooton

Michael Benjamin Wittenberg

Ian A Spraggs

Rasamy Phouthavong

Jonathan P Ive

Duncan Robert Kerr

Bartley K Andre

Richard P Howarth

Eugene Antony Whang

Peter N Russell-Clarke

Christopher J Stringer

Martha Evans Hankey

Rico L Zorkendorfer

Daniele De Iuliis

Jody R Akana

Julian Hoenig

Shota Aoyagi

Benjamin Andrew Shaffer

Anthony Michael Ashcroft

Mikael M Silvanto

Michael D Quinones

Jeremy D Bataillou

Molly J Anderson

Markus Peter Diebel

Clement Tissandier

Julian Jaede

Marine C Bataille

Tang Yew Tan

Tyler Robin Kakuda

Robert F Meyer

Jean-Pierre Simon Guillou

Nicholas George Merz

Michael J Brown

Ashutosh Yugesh Shukla

Eric N Nyland

Paul C Kelley

Ying-Chih Wang

Scott A Myers

Matthew D Hill

Sawyer Isaac Cohen

Richard H Koch

Jonathan M Lee

Jared Mitchell Kole

Simon Christopher Helmore

Richard Hung Dinh

William A Counts

James A Bertin

Melissa A Wah

Stoyan P Hristov

Christopher S Tomasetta

Laura M Burke

Daniel J Coster

Matthew Dean Rohrbach

Christopher D Prest

Erik G De Jong

Lucy Elizabeth Browning

Sameer Pandya

Benjamin Shane Bustle

Tyler B Cater

Martin J Auclair

Abhijeet Misra

James B Smith

David J Dunsmoor

Daniel J Barrett

Vivek Katiyar

Jon F Housour

Owen D Hale

Jason B Neevel

Jared P Ostdiek

Steven J Osborne

Jason M Gillier

Jeremy Bataiilou

Gareth L Rose

Dale T Morgan

Steven Porter Hotelling

Shayan Malek

Scott P Porter

Dhaval N Shah

Edward S Huo

Eric McCallister Bennett

Gregory N Stephens

Yi Qiao

Douglas G Fournier

Yaocheng Zhang

Boon Wai Shiu

Michael M Li

Palaniappan Chinnakaruppan

Bryan D Keen

Jason P Shannon

Hao Dong

Ramachandran Chundru

Kodiak D Burke

Jesse P Harris

Griffin L Schmitt

Adam J Brinkman

Srikanth V Thiruppukuzhi

Andrew U Leopold

An electronic device may have a display with pixels configured to display an image. The pixels may be overlapped by a cover layer. The display may have peripheral edges with curved cross-sectional profiles. An inactive area in the display may be formed along a peripheral edge of the display or may be surrounded by the pixels. Electrical components such as optical components may be located in the inactive area. An image transport layer may be formed from a coherent fiber bundle or Anderson localization material. The image transport layer may overlap the pixels, may have an opening that overlaps portions of the inactive area, may have an output surface that overlap portions of the inactive area, and/or may convey light associated with optical components in the electronic device.

Electronic devices having image transport layers and electrical components

A portable electronic device may include a housing having a wall defining an opening in the housing and at least a portion of four side surfaces of the portable electronic device. The portable electronic device may further include a display at least partially within the housing, a front cover positioned in the opening in the housing and over the display, the front cover defining a front surface, a peripheral side surface extending from the front surface and at least partially surrounded by the wall of the housing, and a notch that, together with a portion of the wall of the housing, defines an acoustic port of the portable electronic device. The electronic device may further include an acoustic port cover positioned at least partially in the acoustic port and a speaker at least partially within the housing and configured to direct sound through the acoustic port cover.

Handheld electronic device

A portable electronic device may include a touch-sensitive display, a housing at least partially enclosing the touch-sensitive display, the housing defining an audio port along a side of the housing, the audio port defining a partially enclosed volume, and an acoustic module positioned within the housing and including an audio enclosure defining a first passage and a second passage, a microphone operably coupled to the partially enclosed volume of the audio port by the first passage, a pressure sensor operably coupled to the partially enclosed volume of the audio port by the second passage, and an acoustic mesh positioned between an end of the second passage and the audio port.

Acoustic module for handheld electronic device

A mobile phone may include a housing, a battery at least partially within the housing, and a circuit board assembly at least partially within the housing and positioned along a side of the battery. The circuit board assembly may include a first circuit board defining a first hole, a second circuit board defining a second hole, a wall structure between the first circuit board and the second circuit board and attached to an inner surface of the first circuit board and an inner surface of the second circuit board, and a fastener assembly configured to retain the first circuit board to the second circuit board.

A portable electronic device includes a housing, a sensor array including a first camera module having a first field of view, a second camera module having a second field of view different from the first field of view, and a light source, and a rear cover formed from a glass material and defining a raised sensor array region positioned over the sensor array. The raised sensor array region defines a first hole extending through the rear cover and positioned proximate a first corner region of the raised sensor array region, and a second hole extending through the rear cover and positioned proximate a second corner region diagonal from the first corner region. The first camera module includes a first camera housing defining a recess at a corner of the first camera housing, and the second camera module includes a second camera housing extending into the recess.

A portable electronic device may include a housing member, a rear cover coupled to the housing member, and a top module coupled to the housing member and including a front cover defining an exterior surface and an interior surface opposite to the exterior surface, a display stack attached to the interior surface of the front cover and comprising a flexible circuit element extending from a side of the display stack, a frame member attached to the interior surface of the front cover and extending at least partially around a periphery of the display stack, and an encapsulating structure positioned between the frame member and the display stack and at least partially encapsulating a portion of a peripheral side of the display stack and the flexible circuit element. The encapsulating structure may cover at least a portion of a bottom side of the display stack.

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. Gap-overlapping structures may overlap the gaps to hide internal components from view or to blend the appearance of gaps with the appearance of adjoining portions of a display layer. The gap-overlapping structures may include light sources such as crystalline semiconductor light-emitting diodes. The diodes may emit light through light diffusing structures. Protruding display layer fingers and other structures may be used to accommodate display cover layer surfaces with curved profiles such as corner surfaces of compound curvature.

Electronic devices having displays with curved surfaces

A portable electronic device includes a housing, a front cover defining a front side of the portable electronic device, a display stack below the front cover and comprising a plurality of display layers configured to produce a graphical output in a display region of the display stack, the graphical output visible through the front cover, and a light sensor module positioned at least partially within the housing and coupled to the display stack in the display region. The light sensor module may be configured to receive ambient light passing through the front cover and through the plurality of display layers and, while a blanking interval is positioned over the light sensor module, produce an output corresponding to the received ambient light, the portable electronic device configured to determine an ambient light value based at least in part on the output from the light sensor module.

An electronic device may have pixels. The pixels may form one or more displays. The displays may be flexible organic light-emitting diode displays or other displays. The electronic device may have first and second display layers that face away from each other and display images in different directions. Image transport layers may overlap the display layers and may have curved edges that overlap a sidewall portion of the electronic device. Image transport layers receive images at input surfaces and transport the received images to corresponding output surfaces. Image transport layers may be provided with hemispherical shapes and other shapes having output surfaces of compound curvature. A folding device may have first and second displays that are overlapped by respective first and second image transport layers that join over a hinge to block the hinge from view. A wristwatch device may have links or other structures with an image transport layer.

Electronic devices having housings with image transport layers

A portable electronic device may include a housing, a display at least partially within the housing, a front cover coupled to the housing and positioned over the display, and a biometric sensor module configured to illuminate an object and capture an image of the object through the front cover. The biometric sensor module may include a first lens positioned below the front cover, a first light source positioned below the first lens and configured to project, through the first lens, a dot pattern on the object, a second light source positioned below the first lens and configured to illuminate, through the first lens, the object with a flood of light, a second lens positioned below the front cover, and a light sensor positioned below the second lens and configured to capture an image of the object.

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.

Electronic devices with curved display surfaces

An electronic device may have a display with pixels configured to display an image. The pixels may be overlapped by a cover layer. 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 through the cover layer. Circuitry may be embedded within the image transport layer. The circuitry that is embedded within the image transport layer may include capacitive touch sensor circuitry, antenna resonating element structures, input-output components, signal lines, and other circuitry.

Electronic devices having image transport layers with embedded circuitry

Growing community of inventors

San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Marwan Rammah