Apple Inc.

Robert Ubo Liu

Blake R Marshall

John Stephen Smith

Daniel Jacob Benjamin Bechstein

Wing Kong Low

Adam S Howell

Santhana Krishnan Balaji

Qigen Ji

Taylor Harrison Gilbert

Vipin Ayanoor-Vitikkate

Jonathan M Beard

Jaime G Chavez Ruiz Garza

Zhibin Wang

Chen Zheng

MohammadAli Khorrami

Robert M Proie

Ullas Chandra Sekhar Pazhayaveetil

Jason Chueh-Ren Hu

Nan Wang

Rexford J Garland

Ying Cao

Ramon Villar Ramirez

Alexander L Jackson

A modular electronic device system that can include a computing device in electronic communication with an input device. Various types of sensor contained in either or both of the computing device and input device are used to determine orientation and hinge angle between the computing device and input device. Input settings can be changed according to the data from the various sensors. The input device can also include an elongated tail that is configured to attach to the computing device. The elongated tail can allow multiple physical configurations for ease of use.

Keyboard accessory for electronic device

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) robust design for an input device such as a stylus is disclosed. The input device can include one or more components, such as one or more Schottky diodes, that can be damaged by ESD events. To reduce the likelihood of damage to sensitive components, the parasitic capacitance between sensitive conductive paths and reference ground paths of the input device that could otherwise provide electrostatic discharge paths can be reduced (arranging current limiting resistance at specific locations among sensitive components, creating physical separation between sensitive conductive paths and reference ground paths), shielding can be added to shield the sensitive electronics from ESD pulses, and high dielectric breakdown material can be added to prevent ESD pulse entry or exit of not otherwise protected circuit parts.

Electrostatic discharge robust design for input device

An input device such as a stylus for providing input to a touch-sensitive surface with reduced sensitivity to leakage current variations over temperature is disclosed. A passive stylus may include one or more diodes in parallel with one or more bleed resistors. The non-linear load of the diode and resistor network can be operative to provide a stylus electric field in response to a stimulation signal from an electronic device that can be capacitively coupled to, and sensed by, the electronic device. The signal sensed by the electronic device can be a function of the total leakage current, which can vary greatly as a function of temperature and frequency. In order to improve performance, the diode and resistor network, including the bleed resistor(s) and diodes within that network, can be selected and/or designed to provide a reduced variation in the leakage current and more accurate stylus detection.

Reducing sensitivity to leakage variation for passive stylus

A stylus or other tactile-based input device can receive different types of tactile input from a user. The tactile input sensing functions can be performed by a touch input sensor, such as a capacitive sensing device, and a compressive force sensor, such as a capacitive gap sensor. A touch input sensor can be integrated into an input device in a low profile form and overlap the compressive force sensor so that both touch input and compressive force input can be detected in the same regions of the stylus. Both types of tactile input can be received at the user's natural grip location.

Stylus with touch input and compressive force sensors

Growing community of inventors

Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Robert Ubo Liu