Apple Inc.

Yazan Z Alnahhas

Moshe Kriman

Colleen F Mischke

Adar Magen

Kevin A Sawyer

Wei Lin

Dennis R Pyper

Shubhaditya Majumdar

Prabhakar Gulgunje

Martin B Adamcyk

Hannah D Noble

Yuval Tsur

Harish Venkataraman

Christopher Hu

Venkataram R Raju

Harish Govindarajan

Yu Qiao Qu

Aurelien R Hubert

Nathan K Gupta

Zhenbin Ge

Gregory A Cohoon

Roei Remez

Refael Della Pergola

Assaf Avraham

Jianmin Gong

Calvin Kyaw Wong

Eamon Han O'Connor

Meng Zhang

Jawad Nawasra

Brian S Medower

Nitin Kumar Chennupati

Susan Ann Thompson

Peng Chen

Ya-Wen Hsu

Kayo Yanagisawa

Yohai Zmora

Kevin Garrison

Christopher M Wright

Zhengyu Miao

Talisa Mohammad Nejad

Oyvind Svensen

Xiao Hu

Shifa Xu

Mahmut C Orsan

Jeffrey B Fixler

Anael A Guilmo

Jinjun Zhang

Nicole Elizabeth Cazares

Ahmed Rashid

Arun Kumar Nallani Chakravartula

Various embodiments include a camera having a ball bearing voice coil motor (VCM) actuator for moving a carrier (and image sensor) and a flexure to supply a drive current to the ball bearing VCM actuator, allowing motion of the carrier relative to a stationary structure of the camera while maintaining an electrical connection. In embodiments, the camera may include a shield can coupled to a lens barrel (e.g., forming a seal to block particles and/or light), and the carrier is coupled with the image sensor. The ball bearing VCM actuator may include a coil coupled with the carrier, a magnet coupled with the shield can, and a ball bearing suspension arrangement to suspend the carrier from the shield can.

Ball bearing sensor shift camera with flexure

A touch screen device includes a transmitter optical fiber, optical transmitter circuitry, a receiver optical fiber, optical receiver circuitry, and cover material. The transmitter optical fiber and/or the receiver optical fiber include a respective core, a respective absorptive clad circumferentially surrounding the respective core, and/or a respective absorptive jacket circumferentially surrounding the respective absorptive clad.

Systems and methods to control cross-talk of an optical fiber-based sensing module

An optoelectronic apparatus includes a semiconductor substrate and an array of emitters disposed on the semiconductor substrate and configured to emit beams of optical radiation having respective chief rays. An optical diffuser is mounted over the semiconductor substrate and configured to diffuse the beams. Microlenses are disposed between the semiconductor substrate and the optical diffuser in respective alignment with the emitters and configured to steer the beams at different, respective angles, which are selected so that at least some of the chief rays cross one another before passing through the diffuser.

Flood projector with microlens array

A light pipe such as a fiber ribbon may be formed from fibers joined by binder such as extruded binder. The fiber ribbon or other light pipe may have bends. A light source may provide light to an input of a fiber ribbon that is guided by the fiber ribbon to a corresponding output. The output may be located in an interior portion of an electronic device or may be positioned so that light from the output exits the electronic device and illuminates external objects. The light source may have light-emitting devices on a substrate. The light-emitting devices may be vertical cavity surface-emitting laser diodes or other lasers and/or may be light-emitting diodes. Light-emitting devices may be arranged in discrete clusters corresponding to the locations of fiber cores in the fiber ribbon.

Electronic devices with optical fiber ribbons

Apparatus for optical sensing includes an illumination assembly, which directs first optical radiation toward a target scene over a first range of angles and second optical radiation over at least one second range of angles, which is smaller than and contained within the first range, while modulating the optical radiation with a carrier wave having at least one predetermined carrier frequency. A detection assembly includes an array of sensing elements, which output respective signals in response to the first and the second optical radiation. Processing circuitry drives the illumination assembly to direct the first and the second optical radiation toward the target scene in alternation, and processes the signals output by the sensing elements in response to the first optical radiation in order to compute depth coordinates of points in the target scene, while correcting the computed depth coordinates in response to the second optical radiation.

Depth mapping with MPI mitigation using reference illumination pattern

An arbitrary current waveform generator operates by oversampling an input clock signal, and decimating the oversampled clock signal to a decimated clock signal. The oversampled clock signal can be provided as a clock signal to a shift register preloaded with digital values corresponding to samples of a selected waveform to provide as output, and the decimated clock signal can be used to maintain phase synchronization with the input clock signal. Digital output of the shift register is provided to a digital to analog converter, output from which may be used to drive a current-controlled electronic circuit element.

Arbitrary waveform generator for current-controlled elements in portable electronic devices

An optoelectronic apparatus includes a heat sink, which is shaped to define a base, a first platform at a first elevation above the base, and a second platform alongside the first platform at a second elevation above the base, which is different from the first elevation. A first monolithic emitter array is mounted on the first platform and is configured to emit first optical beams. A second monolithic emitter array is mounted on the second platform and is configured to emit second optical beams. An optical element is configured to direct both the first and the second optical beams toward a target region.

Projection of patterned and flood illumination

An optoelectronic assembly includes an integrated circuit (IC) chip including, on its front side, a photoconversion region and first electrical contact pads disposed alongside the photoconversion region. A circuit substrate contains a cavity into which the IC chip is inserted through the lower side and has a window opening through the upper side in communication with the cavity such that the photoconversion region of the IC chip is exposed through the window. The circuit substrate includes electrical circuit traces, which include second electrical contact pads disposed within the cavity alongside the window so as to contact the first electrical contact pads on the front side of the IC chip within the cavity. A base includes a stiff, heat-conducting material, to which the lower side of the circuit substrate is fixed. A malleable heat-conducting layer is compressed between the rear side of the IC chip and the base.

Flip-chip mounting of optoelectronic chips

An optical module includes an enclosure and an optical output assembly mounted on the enclosure. An emitter mounted in the enclosure is configured to emit a beam of light toward the optical output assembly. A connector, which includes two conductive layers separated by a dielectric layer, has a first side connected to the enclosure and a second side connected to the optical output assembly. An electrical trace disposed on the enclosure is connected to the first side of the connector so as to define a test circuit having a capacitance. Control circuitry is coupled to sense the capacitance of the test circuit, and configured to inhibit operation of the emitter upon sensing a change in the capacitance that exceeds a predetermined threshold.

Mini-interconnect capacitor

An electronic module includes a circuit substrate including conductive pads interconnected by traces, including a ground pad for connection to an electrical ground. One or more electronic components are mounted on the circuit substrate. A housing including a dielectric material is mounted on the circuit substrate so as to cover the one or more electronic components. A metal lead, which has first and second ends, is embedded in the dielectric material such that the first end contacts the ground pad on the circuit substrate when the housing is mounted on the circuit substrate, and the second end is exposed at an outer surface of the dielectric material. A conductive coating is disposed over the outer surface of the housing in galvanic contact with the exposed second end of the metal lead.

Electromagnetic shielding of compact electronic modules

An optical module includes first and second transparent substrates and a spacer between the first and second transparent substrates, holding the first transparent substrate in proximity to the second transparent substrate, with first and second diffractive optical elements (DOEs) on respective faces of the first and second transparent substrates. At least first and second capacitance electrodes are disposed respectively on the first and second transparent substrates in proximity to the first and second DOEs. Circuitry is coupled to measure changes in a capacitance between at least the first and second capacitance electrodes.

Capacitive DOE integrity monitor

An optical module includes a diffractive optical element (DOE) with a transparent conductive trace disposed over a surface of the DOE. An emitter is configured to direct a beam of optical radiation through the DOE. Control circuitry is coupled to measure a resistance of the transparent conductive trace and to control operation of the emitter responsively to the resistance.

Light projector with integrated integrity sensor

An apparatus includes a main substrate, a device, and a heat spreader. The main substrate is configured for mounting the device in a mounting location thereon and having a cavity located below the mounting location. The device is mounted in the mounting location, and the heat spreader is fitted into the cavity and coupled to the device and to a heat sink. The heat spreader is configured to conduct heat from the device to the heat sink and to provide electrical insulation between the device and the heat sink.

Circuit substrate with embedded heat sink

An optical module includes a transparent substrate and a refractive optical element mounted on the substrate. A conductive heating trace is deposited on the substrate around the refractive optical element. A temperature sensor senses a temperature of the substrate. Control circuitry is coupled to the temperature sensor so as to measure a difference between the temperature of the substrate and a target operating temperature of the module, and to drive a current through the conductive heating trace, responsively to the difference, so as to heat the substrate to the target operating temperature.

Integrated optical modules with enhanced reliability and integrity

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Yazan Z Alnahhas