Apple Inc.

Ying-Chih Wang

Tyler Robin Kakuda

Jean-Pierre Simon Guillou

Michael J Brown

Paul C Kelley

Yi Qiao

Michael Benjamin Wittenberg

Marwan Rammah

Rasamy Phouthavong

Hao Dong

Shaorui Yang

Cheng Kai Chen

Jun Qi

Rui Liu

Hung Sheng Lin

ByoungSuk Kim

Yi Huang

Meng-Huan Ho

David S Hum

Donghee Nam

Yanming Li

Aleksandr N Polyakov

Kwang Ohk Cheon

KiBeom Kim

Wei Hsin Yao

Ming Xu

Daniel William Jarvis

Chaohao Wang

Shawn Robert Gettemy

Sawyer Isaac Cohen

Warren S Rieutort-Louis

John J Baker

Richard Hung Dinh

Zhen Zhang

David Andrew Doyle

Douglas G Fournier

Yaocheng Zhang

Paul U Leutheuser

Yingying Tang

Izhar Zahoor Ahmed

Eric W Bates

Jingjing Xu

Takahide Ishii

Yue Cui

James P Landry

Salman Karbasi

Yurii Morozov

Shaowei Qin

Alexis G Soyseven

Ian T Clark

Jason C Law

Kikue S Burnham

Bulong Wu

Salman Karbasivalashani

Isabel S Gueble

Siddharth Avachat

Sarah Trabia

Benjamin R Pope

An electronic device may have a display with pixels configured to display an image. The pixels may be overlapped by a cover layer. The display may have peripheral edges with curved cross-sectional profiles. An inactive area in the display may be formed along a peripheral edge of the display or may be surrounded by the pixels. Electrical components such as optical components may be located in the inactive area. An image transport layer may be formed from a coherent fiber bundle or Anderson localization material. The image transport layer may overlap the pixels, may have an opening that overlaps portions of the inactive area, may have an output surface that overlap portions of the inactive area, and/or may convey light associated with optical components in the electronic device.

Electronic devices having image transport layers and electrical components

An electronic device may have pixels that form an active area for a flexible display layer. An inactive area that is free of pixels may surround the active area. One or more edges of the flexible display layer may be bent around respective bend axes. The display layer may also have one or more unbent edges in which the inactive area and active area of the display have a planar shape. An image transport layer may have an input surface that receives the image and an output surface to which the image is transported. The image transport layer may be formed from a coherent fiber bundle or a layer of Anderson localization material. The coherent fiber bundle may have straight fibers that run parallel to each other in a vertical direction that is parallel to a surface normal of a central portion of the display layer.

Electronic devices having vertical image transport layers

An electronic device includes a housing that defines an aperture, and a display assembly positioned in the aperture. The display assembly can include a display layer having a first portion, and a second portion bending at least partially below the first portion. The first portion and the second portion can define a bend volume, and a potting material can be disposed in the bend volume, such that the potting material contacts the first portion and the second portion. An internal enclosure can be contoured to the display assembly.

Display panel bend reinforcement

An electronic device may have a display overlapped by an image transport layer such as a coherent fiber bundle or layer of Anderson localization material. The image transport layer may have an input surface that receives an image from the display and a corresponding output surface to which the image is transported. The input surface and output surface may have different shapes. During fabrication of the image transport layer, molding techniques, grinding and polishing techniques, and other processes may be used to deform the image transport layer and the shape of the output surface. To help reduce ambient light reflections and stray light, light-absorbing structures may be incorporated into the image transport layer and other structures overlapping the display.

Electronic devices with reduced stray light and ambient light reflections

An electronic device may have pixels. The pixels may form one or more displays. The displays may be flexible organic light-emitting diode displays or other displays. The electronic device may have first and second display layers that face away from each other and display images in different directions. Image transport layers may overlap the display layers and may have curved edges that overlap a sidewall portion of the electronic device. Image transport layers receive images at input surfaces and transport the received images to corresponding output surfaces. Image transport layers may be provided with hemispherical shapes and other shapes having output surfaces of compound curvature. A folding device may have first and second displays that are overlapped by respective first and second image transport layers that join over a hinge to block the hinge from view. A wristwatch device may have links or other structures with an image transport layer.

Electronic devices having housings with image transport layers

An electronic device may have a display layer for displaying images. An optical coupling layer having an input surface that receives light from the display panel may convey the light from the input surface to an output surface. The output surface may have different dimensions than the display layer and may have any desired shape. To account for the displacement of light between the active area and the outer surface of the optical coupling layer and to ensure the output image is perceived with the desired distortion, image data may be rendered for the output surface then modified to account for the distortion and displacement that will occur later when the image is transported by the optical coupling layer from the display active area to the output surface of the optical coupling layer. Image distortion control circuitry may modify the rendered image data based on a distortion map.

Distortion control in displays with optical coupling layers

An electronic device may have a display overlapped by a cover layer. Portions of the surface of the display and cover layer may have curved profiles. The display may include a flexible substrate with bent edge portions protruding from a central region. Gaps may be formed between regions of pixels on a common display substrate or between separate display substrates. A light source may emit light through a gap. Optical components such as sensors may be aligned with windows in the display. The windows may be formed from transparent portions of a display layer that are surrounded by pixels. A frame may be used to support the flexible substrate. The frame may have a metal portion and a polymer portion molded to the metal portion. Openings and other structures in the frame may accommodate components such as optical sensors. Components may be aligned with frame openings and display windows.

ELECTRONIC DEVICES HAVING CURVED DISPLAYS WITH SUPPORTING FRAMES

An electronic device may have a display that displays an image. The image may be viewed through a display cover layer that overlaps the display. The display cover layer may include an optical coupling layer such as a coherent fiber bundle. A pixel expansion layer such as a diffractive layer may be incorporated between the optical coupling layer and a protective layer. The diffractive layer may create duplicate pixels to occupy otherwise non-light-emitting areas on the output surface of the display cover layer. The diffractive layer may also create duplicate pixels that overlap adjacent pixels to allow for brightness averaging. An adhesive layer or the protective layer may be used to form diffractive elements for the diffractive layer. An adhesive layer having a high index of refraction may be interposed between the optical coupling layer and the display panel to mitigate undesired reflections of ambient light.

Electronic device with an optical coupling layer and diffractive layer

An electronic device may have a display with pixels configured to display an image. An image transport layer may be formed from a coherent fiber bundle or Anderson localization material. The image transport layer may overlap the pixels and may have an input surface that receives the image from the pixels and a corresponding output surface on which the received image is viewable. The image transport layer may form an exterior surface of the electronic device or may be overlapped by a transparent cover layer. Various methods such as swelling, piping, and slumping may be used to process fibers and form image transport layers. A fiber bundle that is used to form an image transport layer may include fibers that have varying properties.

Methods for forming image transport layers

An electronic device may have a display with pixels configured to display an image. The pixels may be overlapped by a cover layer. An image transport layer may be formed from a coherent fiber bundle or Anderson localization material. The image transport layer may overlap the pixels and may have an input surface that receives the image from the pixels and a corresponding output surface on which the received image is viewable through the cover layer. Circuitry may be embedded within the image transport layer. The circuitry that is embedded within the image transport layer may include capacitive touch sensor circuitry, antenna resonating element structures, input-output components, signal lines, and other circuitry.

Electronic devices having image transport layers with embedded circuitry

An electronic device may have a display panel for displaying images. A display cover layer having curved portions may overlap the display panel. An image transport layer having an input surface that receives light from the display panel may convey the light from the input surface to an output surface adjacent to an inner surface of the display cover layer. The image transport layer may include fibers with different lengths to form a region of the output surface with a curved profile. Each fiber in the coherent fiber bundle may have a respective output face. The output face of each fiber in the curved edge region of the image transport layer may be parallel to the display panel or may be angled towards the center of the image transport layer. Image distortion control circuitry may modify image data to control the perceived distortion of the display.

Electronic devices having displays with image transport layers

Display structures for controlling viewing angle color shift are described. In various embodiments, polarization sensitive diffusers, independent controlled cathode thicknesses, filtermasks, touch detection layers, and color filters are described.

Viewing angle color shift control

Growing community of inventors

Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Ying-Chih Wang