Apple Inc.

Yasmin F Afsar

Hoon Sik Kim

Chang-Chia Huang

Paul Stephen Drzaic

Terry C Lam

Young Cheol Yang

Leiming Wang

Christopher D Jones

Masato Kuwabara

Nikhil D Kalyankar

Terry C Shyu

Bhadrinarayana Lalgudi Visweswaran

Michael Benjamin Wittenberg

Prashant Mandlik

Xiaowei Wu

Tatsuya Sano

Owen D Hale

Supriya Goyal

Yuxi Zhao

Wen-I Hsieh

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

An electronic device has a foldable display. First and second portions of an electronic device housing for the device may be joined using hinge structures. A flexible display may overlap the first housing portion, the hinge structures, and the second housing portion. A layer such as a layer of sheet metal may be used in supporting the display and may overlap the hinge structures. The hinge structures may include gear teeth, belts, and/or other movement synchronization structures. The hinge structures may include members that move relative to each other during bending. The moving members may include bars and links with opposing curved bearing surfaces. Stop surfaces may prevent excessive rotation of the bars and links with respect to each other. The links may rotate about pivot points that lie within the thickness of the display without the hinge structure living within the thickness of the display.

Electronic devices having folding expandable displays

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

Protective cover layers for electronic devices are described. In an embodiment, an electronic device includes a display panel and a protective cover layer over the display panel. The protective cover layer includes a transparent support substrate and a hardcoat layer covering an exterior facing surface of the transparent support substrate. The display panel may be a flexible display panel and the protective cover layer may flex with the flexible display panel.

Hybrid coverlay/window structure for flexible display applications

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Yasmin F Afsar