Apple Inc.

Sinan Filiz

Martin Paul Grunthaner

John Stephen Smith

Brian Quentin Huppi

James E Pedder

Christopher J Butler

Charley T Ogata

Shin John Choi

Romain A Teil

Dhaval Chandrakant Patel

Michael Vosgueritchian

Steven Porter Hotelling

John Greer Elias

Steven James Martisauskas

Miguel C Christophy

Peter W Richards

Storrs Townsend Hoen

Kristina A Babiarz

Christian M Sauer

Vivek Katiyar

Vikram Garg

Tingjun Xu

Xiaonan Wen

Kai Wang

Sawyer Isaac Cohen

Shahrooz Shahparnia

Sunggu Kang

Xiaofan Niu

Saahil Mehra

Anshuman Bhuyan

Richard M Comer

A device configured to sense a touch on a surface of the device. The device includes a cover and a force-sensing structure disposed below the cover. The force-sensing structure may be positioned below a display and used in combination with other force-sensing elements to estimate the force of a touch on the cover of a device.

Force determination employing sheet sensor

An electronic device that senses home button inputs through ultrasonic force sensing. The electronic device may correlate that amount of force that a user applies to the home button with a specific home button command. In certain embodiments, the system may combine the force of touch information with other information that is sensed for a particular touch to correlate the touch input with a greater number of home button commands. A home button embodiment discussed herein may include a home button image that is displayed on a touch sensitive panel. In other embodiments, a home button may be located outside of the boundaries of a touch sensitive panel.

Ultrasound-based force sensing of inputs

Although embodiments have been fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as being included within the scope of the various embodiments as defined by the appended claims. The foregoing description has broad application. Accordingly, the discussion of any embodiment is meant only to be an example and is not intended to suggest that the scope of the disclosure, including the claims, is limited to these examples.

Force sensing of inputs through strain analysis

An optical force sensor that may compensate for environmental effects, including, for example, variations in temperature of the device or the surroundings. In some examples, two force-sensitive layers are separated by a compliant layer. The relative electrical response of the two force-sensitive layers may be used to compute an estimate of the force of a touch that reduces the effect of variations in temperature. In some examples, piezoelectric films having anisotropic strain properties are used to reduce the effects of temperature.

Temperature compensating sensor having a compliant layer separating independent force sensing substrates and sense circuitry to obtain a relative measure between the force sensing substrates

An optical force sensor, which may be used as input to an electronic device. The optical force sensor may be configured to compensate for variations in temperature using two or more force-sensitive components that are formed from materials having different temperature- and strain-dependent responses.

Temperature compensating force sensor

Force determination employing sheet sensor and capacitive array

Structures and methods are disclosed for an electronic device having an input surface that uses dual sensors to measure forces applied to the input surface. The forces can be estimated over a greater range of values than would be possible with either sensor alone. A second sensor can be used after a first sensor has reached a limit. A first sensor can be a strain sensor and a second sensor a pressure sensor. Both sensors may be resistance based, with signals from both sensors can be combined and measured by processing circuitry. Each sensor type may be part of planar arrays disposed beneath the input surface.

Dual resistive strain and pressure sensor for force touch

An electronic device has a force sensor that determines a measure of applied force from a user contacting a cover glass of the device. In one embodiment, a frame at least partially encloses an interior of the electronic device and has an open end. A cover glass covers the open end of the frame and is movably connected to the frame to allow movement of the cover glass in response to one or more forces applied to an external surface of the cover glass. A plurality of strain probes is positioned under the cover glass, between the cover glass and the frame, and is arranged to output a plurality of strain signals response to the one or more forces applied to the cover glass. A force processing module is configured to at least calculate an amount of force applied to the cover glass based on the plurality of strain signals.

A force sensor is disclosed. The force sensor includes a force-sensitive structure that compensates for temperature and other environmental changes through the use of a strain-sensitive element and one or more reference elements. An array of such force-sensitive structures forms a force-sensing layer.

Electronic device having direction-dependent strain elements

A method of calibrating a force sensor that includes an input surface and an array of sensing elements. The input has a number of test locations and is deformable under applied force. The force sensor is mounted in a predetermined test orientation. For each test location of the plurality of test locations on the input surface of the force sensor a predetermined test force to the test location. An element calibration value is measured for each sensing element of the array of sensing elements of the force sensor. An (x, y) deformation map of the input surface of the force sensor corresponding to the application of the predetermined test force to the test location is determined based on the measured element calibration values.

Self-calibration of force sensors and inertial compensation

One or more strain sensors can be included in an electronic device. Each strain sensor includes a strain sensitive element and one or more strain signal lines connected directly to the strain sensitive element. The strain sensor(s) are used to detect a force that is applied to the electronic device, to a component in the electronic device, and/or to an input region or surface of the electronic device. A strain sensitive element is formed or processed to have a first gauge factor and the strain signal line(s) is formed or processed to have a different second gauge factor. Additionally or alternatively, a strain sensitive element is formed or processed to have a first conductance and the strain signal line(s) is formed or processed to have a different second conductance.

Strain sensors in an electronic device

Systems for detecting an amount and/or location of a force applied to a device using a piezoelectric film are provided. One example system can include a transparent piezoelectric film for generating an electric charge in response to a deformation of the film. Electrodes positioned on opposite surfaces of the piezoelectric film can be used to detect the generated electric charge and determine an amount and/or location of force applied to the film based on the generated electric charge. In another embodiment, the system can include a capacitive touch sensor for determining a location of a touch event on the device.

Piezo based force sensing

An input/output device for a computing device including one or more touch sensors and one or more force sensors. The touch sensors sense data including one or more locations at which a contact or near-contact occurs. The force sensor sense data including a measure of an amount of force presented at the one or more locations at which a contact occurs. The touch sensors and the force sensors responsive to signals occurring in response to whether the signals are in response to contact or in response to an amount of force. The input/output device also includes one or more circuits coupled to the touch sensors and to the force sensors, and capable of combining information from both sensors.

Ultrasound-based force sensing and touch sensing

A strain-responsive sensor incorporating a strain-sensitive element is disclosed. The strain-sensitive element includes a matched-pair of resistive structures disposed on opposite sides of a substrate. One resistive structure of the matched pair is coupled to a crossover, either a physical crossover or a soft crossover, such that current within the resistive structures of the matched pair flows in the same direction.

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Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Sinan Filiz