Apple Inc.

Other

Terry C Lam

Hoon Sik Kim

Paul Stephen Drzaic

Chang-Chia Huang

Yasmin F Afsar

Young Cheol Yang

Leiming Wang

Que Anh S Nguyen

Bhadrinarayana Lalgudi Visweswaran

Dinesh C Mathew

Keith J Hendren

Adam T Garelli

Houtan R Farahani

Robert Y Cao

Bradley Joseph Hamel

Kevin M Robinson

Prashant Mandlik

Zhen Zhang

Xiaowei Wu

Izhar Zahoor Ahmed

Tatsuya Sano

Scott J Krahn

Yuxi Zhao

Supriya Goyal

Richard Lam

Wen-I Hsieh

Cliff Lam

Christian Weddeling

Ben Hightower

Zhichun Shao

An electronic device may have a hinge that allows the device to be flexed about a bend axis. A display may span the bend axis. To facilitate bending about the bend axis without damage, the display may include a display cover layer with a flexible portion. The flexible portion of the display cover layer may be interposed between first and second rigid portions of the display cover layer. The display cover layer may also include a layer with self-healing properties. The layer of self-healing material may be formed across the entire display cover layer or may be formed only in the flexible region of the display cover layer. The display cover layer may include a layer of elastomer in the flexible region of the display cover layer for increased flexibility. Self-healing may be initiated or expedited by externally applied heat, light, electric current, or other type of external stimulus.

Electronic devices with flexible display cover layers

A foldable display device may have housing portions coupled by a hinge. The hinge may have a series of interconnected links. The links may be formed from interdigitated fingers in a friction clutch. The fingers or other portions of the links may be provided with crescent-shaped slots that receive pins. During folding of the device, the pins may slide along the crescent-shaped slots, thereby ensuring that adjacent links rotate relative to each other about a rotation axis that lies outside of the hinge and within a flexible display panel. Links may also be formed from link members with curved mating bearing surfaces that slide relative to each other as adjacent links are rotated relative to each other. A housing rotation synchronization mechanism may be formed using a set of gears that extends between the first and second housing portions.

Hinges for folding display devices

A foldable electronic device may bend about a bend axis. A foldable display panel may be configured to bend along the bend axis as the foldable device is folded. A display cover layer may overlap the display panel. The display panel may have an array of pixels configured to display an image viewable 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 runs parallel to the bend axis and that overlaps the bend axis. The recess forms a flexible locally thinned portion in the glass that allows the display cover layer to bend. A rough surface texture and polymer coating may be provided in the recess. The recess may have shallowly sloping walls.

Electronic devices with folding displays having textured flexible areas

In devices with flexible displays, multilayer adhesive stacks may be included. A multilayer adhesive may attach a flexible display panel to the display cover layer in an electronic device. Including multiple layers of adhesive in the adhesive stack (as opposed to a single layer) provides more degrees of freedom for the tuning and optimization of the properties of the adhesive stack. The multilayer adhesive stack therefore has better performance than if only a single layer of adhesive is used. The multilayer adhesive stack may include one or more layers of soft adhesive, hard adhesive, hard elastomer, hard polymer, and/or glass to optimize the mechanical and optical performance of the multilayer adhesive stack. Soft adhesive layers may be included to optimize lateral decoupling (e.g., during folding and unfolding) of the adhesive stack. Harder layers may be included to provide rigidity and prevent denting during impact events.

Electronic devices with multilayer adhesive

A flexible display in a foldable electronic device may have a display cover layer and display panel that 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 pixels may be formed from thin-film display circuitry that is supported by a flexible display panel substrate. The flexible substrate may be supported by a display support plate that bends about the bend axis. The display may be configured to allow attachment of the display panel substrate to the display support plate while helping to prevent undesired localized deformation of the thin-film display circuitry.

Electronic devices with deformation-resistant displays

A foldable electronic device may have a foldable housing. The foldable housing may be configured to bend about a bend axis. First and second portions of the housing that rotate relative to each other may be coupled by a hinge that is aligned with the bend axis. A foldable display may be coupled to the foldable housing and may be configured to bend along the bend axis as the foldable housing is folded. The display may have an array of pixels supported by a metal layer. The pixels may be interposed between a display cover layer and the metal layer. The foldable housing may have a support layer. To help support the display for bending about the bend axis while preventing damage to the display when the display is contacted by an external object, a spring layer may be interposed between the metal layer and the support layer.

Electronic devices with flexible displays

A display may have an array of organic light-emitting diodes that form an active area on a flexible substrate. Display driver circuitry such as a display driver integrated circuit may be coupled to an inactive area of the flexible substrate. Metal traces may extend across a bent region of the flexible substrate between the active area and inactive area. Metal traces may have zigzag shapes to reduce stress when bending. Adjacent pairs of parallel segments in the metal traces may be shorted together by a bridging segment that extends perpendicular to the two parallel segments. The bridging segment may be offset from corners to avoid clusters of stress zones in the metal trace. Neutral plane adjustment layers in the bent region may include a metal layer to help counteract the bending force of the flexible substrate and the relaxation of an upper polymer coating.

Displays with redundant bent signal lines and neutral plane adjustment layers

A plug-in type container including: a bottom plate configured to prevent leaking through the container bottom; side walls; and side columns. The bottom plate, the side walls and the side columns are connected in a plug-in manner to form a trough body. The bottom plate and the side columns are provided with plug-in structures configured to engage with each other. The side columns and the side walls are provided with plug-in structures configured to engage with each other. The plug-in type container is formed by connecting the bottom plate, the side columns and the side walls in a plug-in manner. The components are plate-like or columnar structures and can be directly stacked for packing, thereby occupying little space and convenient to transport and carry. Moreover, assembly of the container can be done in a simple manner, thus a common consumer can assemble the container without using tools or screws.

Plug-in type container

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Terry C Lam