Apple Inc.

Mingjing Ha

Paul Stephen Drzaic

Yung-Yu Hsu

David W Lum

Shubham A Gandhi

Daniel D Sunshine

Kathryn P Crews

Kathleen A Bergeron

Bryce Bradford

Tirshathah A Hunter

Han-Chieh Chang

Kuan H Lu

Chaohao Wang

Paolo Sacchetto

Yang Li

Marc Joseph DeVincentis

Michael J Brown

Zhen Zhang

David Andrew Doyle

Hong Luo

Wesley William Zuber

Chang-Chia Huang

George Ho Yin Mak

Yi-Pai Huang

Jonathan C Moisant-Thompson

Adam Adjiwibawa

Anuranjini Pragada

Anshi Liang

Nathaniel T Lawrence

Bhaskar Banerjee

Antonio Yamil Layon Halun

Zhiyuan Sun

Yong Sun

Bulong Wu

A display may include light-emitting components such as light-emitting diodes on a transparent substrate. Conductive signal paths between the light-emitting components, driver integrated circuits for controlling the light-emitting components, and the light-emitting components themselves may be opaque. To mitigate diffraction artifacts caused by the opaque components, the opaque footprint of the display may be selected to include non-periodic portions. The non-periodic portions increase randomness and reduce periodicity within the opaque footprint, which mitigates perceptible diffraction artifacts when viewing the display. One or both of the component mounting portions and interconnect portions of the opaque footprint may be non-periodic. The component mounting portions may have random shapes. The interconnect portions may follow random paths between the component mounting portions.

Displays with non-periodic opaque structures

An electronic device such as a voice-controlled speaker device may have a housing characterized by a vertical longitudinal axis. A flexible substrate such as a flexible mesh substrate with component support regions coupled by flexible segments may be wrapped around the housing and the vertical axis. The housing may have surface regions with compound curvature. The flexible substrate may conform to the regions with compound curvature. A fabric spacer layer may be interposed between the flexible substrate and the housing. Electrical components such as input-output devices may be mounted to the component support regions. A display may be formed from an array of light-emitting devices that are mounted on respective component support regions. Light from the light-emitting devices may pass through the fabric spacer layer toward the housing and back out away from the housing. An outer fabric layer may cover the mesh.

Fabric-covered electronic device

An electronic device display may have pixels formed from crystalline semiconductor light-emitting diode dies, organic light-emitting diodes, or other pixel structures. The pixels may be formed in a display panel having a single substrate or an array of display panel tiles. The display panel has inwardly facing display panel contacts that mate with corresponding outwardly facing interconnect substrate contacts on an interconnect substrate. The interconnect substrate may have areas with compound curvature that are overlapped by the display panel. To enhance flexibility of the interconnect substrate, the interconnect substrate may have flexibility enhancement openings and/or may be formed from a material with a low elastic modulus such as silicone or other elastomeric material.

Electronic devices with curved displays

An electronic device such as a wearable electronic device may have a band. The band may form a stand-alone device or a strap for a wristwatch unit or other device. Electrical components may be mounted on flexible printed circuit substrates. A substrate may be encapsulated by elastomeric polymer material or other material forming the band. The elastomeric polymer material may form cavities that receive the electrical components. Components such as light-emitting diodes may be mounted to the flexible printed circuit substrates so that the light-emitting diodes are located in the cavities. Reflective sidewalls in the cavities may reflect light from the light-emitting diodes outwardly through a thinned portion of the band. Light-diffusing material in the cavities may be formed from clear polymer with light-scattering particles.

Wearable bands with embedded circuitry

Flexible touch sensor panels can be implemented on a strap of a wearable device. A flexible touch sensor panel can provide an additional touch sensitive surface for a user to activate functions on the wearable device without covering a touch screen of the wearable device. In some examples, the flexible touch sensor panels can include electrode connectors configured to electrically couple touch electrodes of the flexible touch sensor panel. In some examples, the electrode connectors can have a serpentine routing pattern configured to allow the touch electrodes to move closer together or farther apart while maintaining electrical coupling between the touch electrodes. In some examples, the touch electrodes can have gaps configured to allow light to pass through the gaps. In some examples, an LED panel can be formed below or one or more waveguide layers can be formed above the flexible touch sensor panel.

Flexible touch sensor panel

Touch sensitive mechanical keyboards and processes for detecting touch events and key depressions on the touch sensitive mechanical keyboard are provided. The touch sensitive mechanical keyboard can include a set of individually depressible mechanical keys having a touch sensitive surface. A touch sensor layer can be disposed on top of a key mechanism and flexible interconnections provided between key segments of the touch sensor layer can allow for depression of the key mechanism of individual keys. In some examples, the flexible interconnections can be formed by patterning a spring-like structure into the touch sensor layer. In some examples, the touch sensor layer can be transparent or include openings to allow a backlight to shine through. In some examples, addressable LED backlighting with buckling interconnects can also be provided to illuminate keycaps of the mechanical keyboard.

Touch sensitive keyboard with flexible interconnections

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Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Mingjing Ha