Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Mohammed Aftab Alam

Ramez Nachman

David Eric Peters

Vikram Srinivas

Shankar Ganapathysubramanian

John Espinoza Sanchez, Jr

Bradley David Urban

Christopher Dwight Barnes

Ali-Reza Bahmandar

Gaurav Soni

Guruprasad Ramanathan

Nageswara Rao Tadepalli

Donald Joseph Ashley

Bobak Ranjbaran

John Douglas Porter

A cover glass of an electronic device may be inspected for defects and damage such as cracks, fractures, scratches, and chips. The electronic device may be placed in an enclosure with a lighting assembly that emits light to the electronic device, and scattered light from defects and damage of the cover glass is captured by an imaging device. A shutter assembly facilitates the capture of scattered light and reduces the capture of reflected light, which enhances the exposure of defects and damage of the captured image of the cover glass. A mirror facilitates the capture of a side surface of the electronic device.

Electronic device inspecting system and method

Determining an in-plane thermal conductivity of anisotropic materials, such as display stacks, printed circuit boards (PCBs), and composite housings, includes heating a first region of an anisotropic sample, cooling a second region of the sample, and measuring temperature at a first location between the first region and the second region and a second location between the first region and the second region. The in-plane thermal conductivity of the sample is computed based at least in part on the temperature at the first location, the temperature at the second location, the distance from the first region to the second region, a thickness of the substantially planar anisotropic substrate, and an amount of heat applied to the first region.

Thermal conductivity measurement of anisotropic substrates

A method of assessing noise involves evacuating air from a vacuum chamber to a pressure less than about 1 Torr and stimulating a device positioned in the chamber by shaking it or by operating a component of the device. Measuring vibrations in a low pressure environment decreases or eliminates propagation of sound waves, thereby enabling isolation and identification of vibrations caused by mechanical noise. These measurements may be useful for more precise acoustic characterization of audio devices containing multiple components.

Vacuum testing of audio devices

This disclosure describes composite structures and method of making the structures. The structures according to this disclosure may be used in handheld electronics. In example embodiments, holes are formed through a planar polymeric core. A metallic coating is disposed on the core to coat external surfaces of the core as well as internal surfaces of the holes. The metallic coating may entirely occlude the holes. The resulting structure may provide improved strength and rigidity and resist delamination of the metallic coating.

Composite structures and methods of making

An electronic device with a e-paper display that internally integrates photovoltaic cells and are not apparent from the exterior of the device. A light source of the device injects light into a light guide to front-light the e-paper. Light that leaks from edges of the light guide is captured by the photovoltaic cells. The plastic light guide is also impregnated with a photoluminescent material that absorbs near infrared energy that is incident on a face of the display and re-emits it isotropically to be guided by the light guide to the photovoltaic cells. By combining multiple techniques to illuminate hidden photovoltaic cells, the utility of the hidden cells is maximized.

Harnessing front light in e-readers to generate electricity

Techniques are described to determine a thickness of individual layers of a plurality of metal layers that include a first metal layer disposed on a polymer material and a second metal layer disposed on the first layer, such that the first layer is between the polymer material and the second layer. A measurement device may determine a resistance of the plurality of metal layers and calculate (e.g., estimate) a thickness of the individual layers based on the resistance of the individual layers and based on a resistivity of individual metals used in the plurality of metal layers. The measurement device may determine whether the individual thicknesses are within predetermined thickness ranges to determine whether to pass a quality control test.

Determining a thickness of individual layers of a plurality of metal layers

An example method includes positioning a mass at a height opposite a modulator characterized by a particular strain rate and support by a carrier moveably disposed opposite the mass. The method also includes releasing the mass such that the mass impacts the modulator, and an additional component connected to the carrier causes failure of a sample of material. The method further includes determining a displacement of the carrier corresponding to failure of the sample, determining a force applied to the modulator by the mass and resulting in failure of the sample, and determining at least one of a dynamic strength of the sample and a dynamic modulus of the sample. In such a method, the dynamic strength is based on the force applied to the modulator and the strain rate. Additionally, the dynamic modulus is based on the displacement of the carrier and the strain rate.

Measurement of dynamic material properties

A loudspeaker port may include tunable physical components to tune the port to different frequencies to improve speaker efficiency at those frequencies. The ports may be activated by at least partly opening associated shutters, or disabled by closing the associated shutters. Activated ports may enhance speaker efficiency in a frequency range. However, activated ports may also introduce sound artifacts, thereby reducing sound quality. Therefore, the ports may be disabled when appropriate to reduce their negative impact to sound quality. A Digital Signal Processor (DSP) may determine the frequency components of a played sound to determine when to open the ports and how to tune the ports. Accordingly, a loudspeaker may benefit from the improved efficiency facilitated by the ports while also avoiding typical drawbacks created by the ports.

Smart bass reflex loudspeaker

A housing of a computing device, such as a computer, laptop computer, cellular phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), tablet computer, electronic reader or e-reader, or other mobile device constructed using a combination of a metal material and a lightweight core material. The housing includes a front housing component including a display and a rear housing coupled to the front housing component with an internal side of the rear housing facing the front housing. The rear housing component includes a core material and a structural material coupled to the core material at strategic locations. For example, the structural material may be located around a periphery of the rear housing, around connection ports of the electronic device, and diagonally across the external side to provide strength and stiffness to the rear housing.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Mohammed Aftab Alam