Patents by Inventor Shubhaditya Majumdar

Shubhaditya Majumdar has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11774644
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a housing with a display. A protective display cover layer for the display may have an image transport layer formed from fibers or Anderson localization material. The image transport layer may include light absorbing material. Light absorbing material may be incorporated as an additive into a component of the image transport layer such as the binder layer of a coherent fiber bundle or the cladding of fibers in the image transport layer. The image transport layer may also be formed from fibers with a light absorbing layer formed in addition to a transparent cladding. The image transport layer may be formed from Anderson localization material that has light absorbing material. Fibers for the image transport layer may be extruded with light absorbing portions. A polymer preform having light absorbing material may be drawn to form fibers for the image transport layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jean-Pierre S. Guillou, Michael J. Brown, Michael B. Wittenberg, Wei Lin, Salman Karbasi, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Ian T. Clark, Nathan K. Gupta, Prabhakar Gulgunje, Chunchia Huang
  • Patent number: 11747553
    Abstract: 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 accommodate differences in material deformation and other factors that vary as a function of position across the image transport layer, the image transport layer may be formed from canes of fibers or other material with one or more properties that vary as a function of position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Tyler R. Kakuda, Elizabeth C. Porter, Jean-Pierre S. Guillou, Michael J. Brown, Paul C. Kelley, Salman Karbasi, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Yi Qiao
  • Patent number: 11644617
    Abstract: A system may include one or more electronic devices. Fiber bundles may be provided to convey light. A fiber bundle may have a bend along its length. Fibers for the fiber bundle may be formed from polymer cores coated with polymer claddings. The fibers may have end faces coated with antireflection coatings. The antireflection coatings may be formed from amorphous fluoropolymer deposited from solution. The fluoropolymer may be applied to the end faces of the fibers by dipping, spraying, or by dispensing with a needle dispenser or other dispensing tool. An optical component such as a light-emitting device for a communications system, an illumination system, or a sensor system may provide infrared light that is guided through the fiber bundle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Shenglin Ye, Wei Lin, Prabhakar Gulgunje, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Boyi Fu, Sudirukkuge T. Jinasundera, Nathan K. Gupta
  • Patent number: 11534995
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a housing with a display. A protective display cover layer for the display may have an image transport layer such as an image transport layer formed from Anderson localization material. Anderson localization material may be formed using equipment such as heated molds, extrusion equipment, fusion tools, and fiber drawing equipment. The materials used to form a block of Anderson localization material may be polymers or other transparent materials. Elevated temperatures such as temperatures above the melting points of the polymers may be used during extrusion, fusion, drawing, and other operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Wei Lin, Nathan K. Gupta, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Prabhakar Gulgunje
  • Patent number: 11525955
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display, a display cover layer, and a drawn sheet-packed coherent fiber bundle. The coherent fiber bundle may have an input surface that receives an image from the display and a corresponding output surface to which the image is transported. The coherent fiber bundle may be placed between the display and the display cover layer and mounted to a housing. The coherent fiber bundle may have fiber cores with bends that help conceal the housing from view and make the display appear borderless. The coherent fiber bundle has filaments formed from elongated strands of binder in which multiple fibers are embedded. Sheets of filaments are stacked and fused together to form a block of material that is subsequently drawn to form the drawn sheet-packed coherent fiber bundle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Wei Lin, Nathan K. Gupta, Prabhakar Gulgunje, Shubhaditya Majumdar
  • Patent number: 11402869
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a housing with a display. The display may be 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 are used to deform the image transport layer and the shape of the output surface. The area of peripheral portions of the output surface may expand relative to central portions. Optical uniformity across the output surface can be enhanced by maintaining uniformity in fiber core diameters and other attributes of the image transport layer across deformed and undeformed portions of the output surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Elizabeth C. Porter, Yi Qiao, Jean-Pierre S. Guillou, Tyler R. Kakuda, Di Liu, Shawn R. Gettemy, Wei Lin, Shenglin Ye, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Christopher E. Glazowski, Paul C. Kelley, Michael J. Brown, Ian T. Clark, Salman Karbasi
  • Publication number: 20220236507
    Abstract: 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.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 16, 2021
    Publication date: July 28, 2022
    Inventors: Prabhakar Gulgunje, Brian S. Medower, Mahmut C. Orsan, Nathan K. Gupta, Shifa Xu, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Wei Lin, Yazan Z. Alnahhas
  • Patent number: 11340725
    Abstract: A force input sensor includes a load cell to adapt a compressive force applied to the force input sensor into a strain experienced by a strain sensor in the load cell. In particular, the load cell includes two compression plates separated from one another by a gap so as to define a volume between them. A flexible substrate (a “diaphragm”)—includes a strain sensor and is disposed and supported within the volume. One of the two compression plates includes a feature (a “loading feature”) that extends toward a central region of the flexible substrate. As a result of this construction, when the compression plates receive a compressive force, the loading feature induces a bending moment in the flexible substrate, thereby straining the strain sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Deng, Travis N. Owens, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Wei Lin, Ying-Da Wang, Timothy D. Koch, Nathan K. Gupta
  • Patent number: 11247421
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a housing with a display. A protective display cover layer for the display may have an image transport layer such as a fiber optic plate. The fiber optic plate may be formed from fibers. An extruder may form fiber bundles that each include a respective plurality of fibers distributed in binder material. The fiber bundles from the extruder may be fed directly to a block forming die. The block forming die may receive the fiber bundles from the extruder and output a unitary fiber block. The fiber bundles may remain heated in the block forming die such that the binder material of the fiber bundles seamlessly merges during formation of the unitary fiber block. A cutter can be used to cut off a layer of the unitary fiber block. This layer may be machined and polished to form the fiber optic plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Prabhakar Gulgunje, Wei Lin, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Nathan K. Gupta
  • Patent number: 11215752
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a housing with a display. A protective display cover layer for the display may have an image transport layer such as an image transport layer formed from optical fibers. Extruded filaments of binder material may be fused together to form a layer of binder for the image transport layer. Each filament may contain multiple embedded optical fibers. As a result of the extrusion process, the optical fibers may be characterized by increasing lateral deformation at increasing distances from the center of the filament in which the optical fibers are embedded. Tension variations and variations in the orientation angle of the fibers in the image transport layer can be maintained below desired limits to ensure satisfactory optical performance for the image transport layer. The optical fibers and binder may be formed from polymers or other clear materials.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Wei Lin, Di Liu, Chunchia Huang, Nathan K. Gupta, Prabhakar Gulgunje, Shenglin Ye, Shubhaditya Majumdar
  • Publication number: 20210004115
    Abstract: A force input sensor includes a load cell to adapt a compressive force applied to the force input sensor into a strain experienced by a strain sensor in the load cell. In particular, the load cell includes two compression plates separated from one another by a gap so as to define a volume between them. A flexible substrate (a “diaphragm”)—includes a strain sensor and is disposed and supported within the volume. One of the two compression plates includes a feature (a “loading feature”) that extends toward a central region of the flexible substrate. As a result of this construction, when the compression plates receive a compressive force, the loading feature induces a bending moment in the flexible substrate, thereby straining the strain sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2020
    Publication date: January 7, 2021
    Inventors: Andrew Deng, Travis N. Owens, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Wei Lin, Ying-da Wang, Timothy D. Koch, Nathan K. Gupta
  • Patent number: 10782818
    Abstract: A force input sensor includes a load cell to adapt a compressive force applied to the force input sensor into a strain experienced by a strain sensor in the load cell. In particular, the load cell includes two compression plates separated from one another by a gap so as to define a volume between them. A flexible substrate (a “diaphragm”)—includes a strain sensor and is disposed and supported within the volume. One of the two compression plates includes a feature (a “loading feature”) that extends toward a central region of the flexible substrate. As a result of this construction, when the compression plates receive a compressive force, the loading feature induces a bending moment in the flexible substrate, thereby straining the strain sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Deng, Travis N. Owens, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Wei Lin, Ying-da Wang, Timothy D. Koch, Nathan K. Gupta
  • Publication number: 20200073504
    Abstract: A force input sensor includes a load cell to adapt a compressive force applied to the force input sensor into a strain experienced by a strain sensor in the load cell. In particular, the load cell includes two compression plates separated from one another by a gap so as to define a volume between them. A flexible substrate (a “diaphragm”)—includes a strain sensor and is disposed and supported within the volume. One of the two compression plates includes a feature (a “loading feature”) that extends toward a central region of the flexible substrate. As a result of this construction, when the compression plates receive a compressive force, the loading feature induces a bending moment in the flexible substrate, thereby straining the strain sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2018
    Publication date: March 5, 2020
    Inventors: Andrew Deng, Travis N. Owens, Shubhaditya Majumdar, Wei Lin, Ying-da Wang, Timothy D. Koch, Nathan K. Gupta