Apple Inc.

Applied Materials, Inc.

Tingjun Xu

Xianwei Zhao

Sunggu Kang

Ove Lyngnes

Xingxing Cai

Tianbo Sun

Yong Cao

James E Pedder

Daniel Lee Diehl

Michael Vosgueritchian

Xiaonan Wen

John Z Zhong

John Stephen Smith

Christopher Dennis Bencher

Huixiong Dai

Serhan O Isikman

Weimin Zeng

Sinan Filiz

Guocheng Shao

Avery P Yuen

Peng Xie

Wookyung Bae

Rui L Peterson

Paul Xiaopeng Wang

Xianmin Tang

Stephen Robert McClure

Rongjun Wang

Adam T Garelli

Wei Lin

Derek William Wright

Tong Chen

Nicholas Alan Rundle

Prashanth S Holenarsipur

Simon S Lee

Mark T Winkler

Ligang Wang

Zhenbin Ge

Michael K McCord

Lei Yu

Dong Zheng

Praveesh Chandran

Soyoung Kim

David Phillip Tarkington

Yuta Kuboyama

Jeffrey Nathan Gleason

Eric Lee Benson

Yifei Wang

Christopher M Dodson

Erik A Zweigle

Lauren M Farrell

Nicholas P Allec

Sudirukkuge T Jinasundera

Elmar Gehlen

Akshay Bhat

Prithu Sharma

Xiaoyang Zhang

Brian P Graves

Yan Guan

Xiaoyong Fu

Kwonil D Fleischman

Linsen Bie

Ryan M Buck

Tai-chou Papo Chen

Xi Chen

A wearable electronic device such as an earbud, wristwatch, or other device may be provided with a skin sensor. The skin sensor may use optical measurements to detect the presence of skin adjacent to the electronic device. The sensor may have first and second light-emitting devices such as infrared devices that emit light at respective first and second infrared light wavelengths. Reflected light is monitored by a photodetector. Control circuitry can initiate or pause audio playback or take other actions in response to determining from the reflected light measurements that skin is present. The sensor may have a thin-film interference filter or other optical structure that overlaps the first and second light-emitting devices to narrow the angular spread of light emitted from the skin sensor. This reduces tilt sensitivity and helps enhance skin sensor accuracy.

Electronic devices with skin sensors

An electronic device may have a housing. Input-output devices may be mounted in the housing. The input-output devices may include a display with an array of pixels configured to display images for a user. The electronic device may have an optical component formed under a transparent region in the housing. The transparent region may be associated with an opening in an opaque masking layer in an inactive area of the display or other portion of the electronic device. A diffuser may be formed between the optical component and the transparent region. The diffuser may have a polymer layer with embedded thin-film interference filter flakes configured to scatter light and to exhibit desired reflection and transmission spectral.

Electronic devices having optical diffusers for optical components

An electronic device can include a housing that at least partially defines an exterior surface and an internal volume of the electronic device, and a display assembly at least partially disposed in the internal volume. The display assembly can include a transparent cover that at least partially defines the exterior surface of the electronic device, a backlight unit disposed between the cover and the housing, a frame coupling the cover to the backlight unit, a portion of the frame at least partially defining an aperture, and an electronic component disposed in the internal volume and extending through the aperture.

Electronic device display assembly

An electronic device includes a housing and a display. The housing defines an interior cavity and includes an optically-transmissive housing component. The display is disposed in the interior cavity and is viewable through the optically-transmissive housing component. An optoelectronic component is disposed in the interior cavity. An optical fiber extends between a first end positioned adjacent the optoelectronic component and a second end positioned adjacent the optically-transmissive housing component. The optical fiber defines a non-linear optical path between the first end and the second end. At least a portion of the optical fiber is laterally offset from a lateral edge of the display.

Display-adjacent optical emission or reception using optical fibers

A color ambient light sensor may gather ambient light measurements during operation of an electronic device. The color ambient light sensor may have a color ambient light detector and an adjustable neutral density filter. The electronic device may have components such as a camera and display that are adjusted using ambient light information from the color ambient light sensor. The display may have a display cover layer. Pixels in an active area of the display may display images through the display cover layer. An inactive area of the display may have an opaque masking layer on an interior surface of the display cover layer. An opening in the opaque masking layer may form an ambient light sensor window for the color ambient light sensor. The adjustable neutral density filter may be interposed between the color ambient light detector and the ambient light sensor window.

Color ambient light sensor with adjustable neutral density filter

An electronic device may have a housing with a display. A transparent portion of the housing may serve as a display cover layer and may overlap an array of pixels in the display. The array of pixels may form an active area of the display for displaying images for a user. An ambient light sensor window may be formed in an inactive area of the display that does not overlap pixels. An ambient light sensor may be mounted in an interior region of the housing. A metal-coated light guide may have a first end aligned with the ambient light sensor window to receive ambient light from an exterior region surrounding the device and may have a second end at which the ambient light is provided to the ambient light sensor.

Electronic devices with light sensor waveguides

An electronic device may be provided with a color ambient light sensor. The color ambient light sensor may be used to measure an ambient light spectrum over a wavelength range of interest. Control circuitry in the electronic device can take actions based on the measured ambient light spectrum such as adjusting the brightness and color cast of content on a display. A display may have a display cover layer. The color ambient light sensor can be mounted under the display cover layer and may receive ambient light through the display cover layer. The color ambient light sensor may have a tunable wavelength filter such as an electrically adjustable Fabry-Perot resonator. A light collimator may be interposed between the display cover layer and the Fabry-Perot resonator to collimate ambient light that is passed to the Fabry-Perot resonator. A light detector measures the light passing through the Fabry-Perot resonator.

Color ambient light sensor with tunable filter

An electronic device may be provided with a display mounted in a housing. The display may have an array of pixels that form an active area and may have an inactive area that runs along an edge of the active area. An opaque layer may be formed on an inner surface of a display cover layer in the inactive area of the display or may be formed on another transparent layer in the electronic device. An ambient light sensor window may be formed from the opening and may be aligned with color ambient light sensor. The ambient light sensor may have an integrated circuit with an array of photodetectors and may have a color filter layer forming a corresponding array of thin-film interference color filters with different respective pass bands. The color filter layer may have a shared dielectric stack and multiple color-filter-specific dielectric stacks on the shared dielectric stack.

Electronic devices having light sensors with thin-film filters

An electronic device may be provided with a display. The display may have an array of pixels that form an active area and may have an inactive area that runs along an edge of the active area. An opaque layer may be formed on an inner surface of a display cover layer in the inactive area of the display or may be formed on another transparent layer in the electronic device. An ambient light sensor window may be formed from the opening and may be aligned with color ambient light sensor. The ambient light sensor may have an integrated circuit with photodetectors. Ambient light passing through the ambient light sensor window may be diffused by a light diffuser having one or more light-diffusing layers. Diffused ambient light may be collimated using a light collimator having one or more light-collimating layers such as layers with inwardly facing protrusions.

Electronic devices having ambient light sensors with light collimators

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

A method for forming an anti-reflective coating (ARC) includes positioning a substrate below a target and flowing a first gas to deposit a first portion of the graded ARC onto the substrate. The method includes gradually flowing a second gas to deposit a second portion of the graded ARC, and gradually flowing a third gas while simultaneously gradually decreasing the flow of the second gas to deposit a third portion of the graded ARC. The method also includes flowing the third gas after stopping the flow of the second gas to form a fourth portion of the graded ARC. In another embodiment a film stack having a substrate having a graded ARC disposed thereon is provided. The graded ARC includes a first portion, a second portion disposed on the first portion, a third portion disposed on the second portion, and a fourth portion disposed on the third portion.

Method for graded anti-reflective coatings by physical vapor deposition

An electronic device may have a display that is protected by a transparent cover layer. The transparent cover layer may include a laser-annealed sapphire coating on the outer surface of a glass substrate or other transparent substrate. The sapphire coating may provide the display with a hard, scratch-resistant outer surface. The sapphire coating may be formed by coating a glass substrate with a thin film of amorphous aluminum oxide. The aluminum oxide thin film may be locally heated to transform the amorphous aluminum oxide into alpha-phase aluminum oxide (sapphire). Local heating may be achieved by laser annealing the aluminum oxide coating with a carbon dioxide laser. The laser may produce laser light having a wavelength that is absorbed in the aluminum oxide coating without being absorbed by the glass substrate so that the glass substrate is not damaged during the laser annealing process.

Electronic devices with sapphire-coated substrates

An electronic device may have layers of glass for forming components such as a display. A display cover glass layer may overlap an array of pixels. A touch sensor may be formed under the display cover glass layer. Conductive structures such as transparent conductive electrodes or other conductive layers of material may be formed on the outer surface of the display cover glass layer. The electrodes on the outer surface of the display cover glass layer may be coupled to metal contacts and other circuitry on the inner surface of the display cover glass layer using conductive vias. Vias may be provided with barrier layers, opaque coatings, tapers, and other structures and may be formed using techniques that enhance compatibility with chemical strengthening processes.

Electronic device display vias

A portable electronic device has a device housing, and an electronic camera module in the device housing. The module has a focusing lens to focus light from a scene, an imaging sensor to receive the focused light, and an electro-optic variable aperture to allow different amounts of the light from the scene to reach the imaging sensor. The electro-optic variable aperture may include a first aperture stack placed on a transparent substrate and a second aperture stack placed on the first aperture stack. The first aperture stack defines a first aperture and the second aperture stack defines a second aperture that is larger than the first aperture. Each aperture stack includes a transparent conductive oxide layer that is common with the adjacent aperture stack. Alternatively the electro-optic variable aperture may include an aperture stack that has two transparent conductive oxide layer layers, where one layer is in the form of concentric annuli.

Adjustable solid film camera aperture

Transparent strain sensors in an electronic device

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Tingjun Xu