Apple Inc.

Other

Michael Benjamin Wittenberg

Scott A Myers

Ashutosh Yugesh Shukla

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

Daniele De Iuliis

Jody R Akana

Daniel J Coster

Matthew Dean Rohrbach

Jeremy D Bataillou

David A Pakula

Matthew D Hill

Shayan Malek

Rico L Zorkendorfer

Julian Hoenig

Erik G De Jong

Sawyer Isaac Cohen

Marwan Rammah

Rasamy Phouthavong

Shota Aoyagi

Benjamin Andrew Shaffer

Anthony Michael Ashcroft

Mikael M Silvanto

Jared Mitchell Kole

Benjamin J Kallman

Shin Nishibori

Jean-Pierre Simon Guillou

Lucy Elizabeth Browning

Trevor J Ness

Richard H Koch

Makiko K Brzezinski

Marc A Newson

Fletcher R Rothkopf

Tang Yew Tan

Colin M Ely

Phillip Michael Hobson

Brad G Boozer

Tyler Robin Kakuda

Benjamin Shane Bustle

Michael J Brown

Zhipeng Zhang

Tatsuya Sano

Eric Steven Jol

Ian A Spraggs

Adam Thomas Clavelle

James B Smith

Daniel William Jarvis

Tyler S Bushnell

Christopher S Graham

Duy P Le

Sameer Pandya

Derek C Krass

Paul C Kelley

Ying-Chih Wang

Owen D Hale

Steven Porter Hotelling

Stephen Paul Zadesky

Giovanni Gozzini

Anna-Katrina Shedletsky

Dale R Setlak

Christopher Matthew Werner

David I Nazzaro

Martin Paul Grunthaner

Samuel Bruce Weiss

Jason C Sauers

Trent Weber

Nicholas George Merz

Charles B Woodhull

Richard Hung Dinh

Romain A Teil

David M Pelletier

Shane Bustle

Steve P Jobs

Jayesh Nath

Lee E Hooton

John B Ardisana, Ii

Gregory N Stephens

Rex Tyler Ehman

Eric N Nyland

Steven C Roach

Peter J Kardassakis

Stefan A Kowalski

Nicholas George LeBreton Merz

Morgan T McClure

Christopher D Prest

John Raff

Hoon Sik Kim

Peter W Richards

Ron Alan Hopkinson

Martin Melcher

Steven P Cardinali

John C DiFonzo

Edward S Huo

Michelle Yu

An electronic device may have a housing, an expandable display mounted to the housing, and a frame for supporting the expandable display. The housing, display, and frame may be operable in expanded and retracted states. In the retracted state, an exposed portion of the display is viewable on the outside of the device, while a retractable portion of the display is enclosed within the housing and hidden behind the exposed portion of the display. As the device transitions from the retracted state to the expanded state, the retractable portion of the display may roll around an axis onto the front of the device to increase the size of the viewable display area. The frame may have a rigid portion that is mostly solid metal supporting the exposed portion of the display and a flexible portion formed from parallel strips of metal supporting the retractable portion of the display.

Electronic devices with expandable displays

A component for an electronic device can include a pre-formed substrate comprising a first metal and an additively manufactured portion bonded to the pre-formed substrate. The additively manufactured portion can include a first portion comprising a second metal and defining a volume, the first portion having a first value of a material property, and a second portion disposed in the volume, the second portion having a second value of the material property that is different from the first value.

Additively manufactured device enclosures

An elongated biometric device provides a slim solution for capturing biometric data, and may be placed on a portion of an electronic device having limited space, such as a side of the electronic device. The elongated biometric device may include a force sensor, which may be positioned within a housing of the electronic device and actuated through posts extending from the elongated biometric device through the housing to transfer an applied force to the force sensor.

Elongated fingerprint sensor

An enclosure and a method for forming an enclosure are disclosed. The enclosure may be formed from metal, such as aluminum, and further include a non-metal portion allowing for transmission and receipt of electromagnetic waves. The non-metal portion may be interlocked to the enclosure and in particular, to a region within the enclosure including a first material having a relatively high strength and stiffness compared to the non-metal portion. Interlocking means may include forming dovetail cuts into the enclosure to receive the non-metal portion, a hole or cavity drilled into the enclosure which includes internal threads, and a rod inserted into the first material to provide a tension to the non-metal portion. Methods of assembling internal components using anodization are also disclosed.

Housing features of an electronic device

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

An electronic device may have a housing with portions that slide relative to each other. A display may be supported on a surface of the housing such as on a front face of the housing. The housing portions may slide between an unexpanded state in which the display has an unexpanded viewable area on the front face and an expanded state in which the display has an expanded viewable area on the front face that is greater than the unexpanded viewable area. The housing portions may have interior regions that contain electrical components. The display may be formed from a flexible display substrate. A portion of a flexible display may be stored in an interior region of the housing when the housing is in the unexpanded state. In the unexpanded state, the flexible display may have one or more bends and may double back on itself one or more times.

Electronic devices having sliding expandable displays

An electronic device may have image transport layer material such as coherent fiber bundle material or Anderson localization material. The image transport layer material may overlap optical components. Optical sensor components can emit and/or detect light passing through the image transport layer material. Optical components such as light-emitting diodes may emit light through image transport layers. An image from a display may pass through an image transport layer. Infrared light-emitting diodes, infrared photodetectors, and/or other optical sensor components may be used to form a two-dimensional optical touch sensor that is configured to gather touch input from an external object such as a finger of a user. The optical touch sensor may operate through an image transport layer.

Electronic devices with optical sensor isolation

An electronic device has a foldable display. First and second portions of an electronic device housing for the device may be joined using hinge structures. A flexible display may overlap the first housing portion, the hinge structures, and the second housing portion. A layer such as a layer of sheet metal may be used in supporting the display and may overlap the hinge structures. The hinge structures may include gear teeth, belts, and/or other movement synchronization structures. The hinge structures may include members that move relative to each other during bending. The moving members may include bars and links with opposing curved bearing surfaces. Stop surfaces may prevent excessive rotation of the bars and links with respect to each other. The links may rotate about pivot points that lie within the thickness of the display without the hinge structure living within the thickness of the display.

Electronic devices having folding expandable displays

In some aspects, mobile devices with foldable and rollable displays can use a sensor to detect vertical acceleration with respect to the ground to determine if the mobile device has been dropped. If the sensor detects that the mobile device has been dropped the foldable device can fold or retract at least partially to afford protection from the fragile display from striking the ground. Even folding the display to an angle less than 180 degrees can afford some protection because the mobile device can strike edges of the mobile device instead of the display itself. In various embodiments, a rollable device can retract the display if predetermined acceleration limits are exceeded.

Self-retracting display device and techniques for protecting screen using drop detection

A composite housing of an electronic device can include a metal shell including a first material having a first set of material properties and a surface at least partially defining an exterior surface of the electronic device. The composite housing can also include an interior portion including a second material having a second set of material properties independent of the first set of material properties and at least partially defining a feature. The interior portion can be bonded to the shell and disposed interior to the surface of the shell.

Core shell with various filler materials for enhanced thermal conductivity

Housing for an electronic device

A portable electronic device may include a housing member defining a side surface of the portable electronic device, a portion of the housing member defining a side wall of a hole extending through the housing member, a button member positioned along the side surface and defining a chassis portion and a hollow post extending into the hole defined through the housing member, and a first waterproof seal defined between the hollow post and the side wall of the hole. The portable electronic device may also include a biometric sensing component coupled to the chassis portion, a flexible circuit element extending through the hollow post and conductively coupling the biometric sensing component to a component within the housing, and a second waterproof seal defined within the hollow post.

Electronic device having a sealed biometric input system

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.

Handheld electronic device

A housing for an electronic device is disclosed. The housing comprises a first component and a second component separated from the first component by a gap. The housing also includes a first molded element disposed at least partially within the gap and defining at least a portion of an interlock feature, and a second molded element disposed at least partially within the gap and mechanically engaging the interlock feature. The first component, the second component, and the second molded element form a portion of an exterior surface of the housing. A method of forming the housing is also disclosed.

Coupling structures for electronic device housings

A foldable display may have a display cover layer and a flexible display panel. The foldable display may bend around a bend axis. The display panel may have an array of pixels configured to display an image through the display cover layer. The display cover layer may be formed from a layer of glass. A recess may be formed in the layer of glass that extends along the bend axis. The recess may form a flexible locally thinned portion in the layer of glass that allows the glass layer to bend about the bend axis. To ensure that the display cover layer exhibits satisfactory impact resistance during drop events, corner portions of the display cover layer and other edge portions of the display cover layer may be provided with greater thickness relative to other portions of the display cover layer outside of the locally thinned portion.

Electronic devices with durable folding displays

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Michael Benjamin Wittenberg