Patents by Inventor Erik G. DE JONG

Erik G. DE JONG 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: 10031268
    Abstract: An organic light-emitting diode display may have an active area that contains pixels and an inactive area. The inactive area of the display may be provided with opaque masking layer structures having an appearance that matches the active area of the display when the pixels are off and are not displaying images. The opaque masking layer structures may include a polymer layer coated with a layer of metal. The display may have pixels with anodes and a cathode layer. The anodes may be formed from metal pads. Dummy structures such as a dummy cathode and dummy anodes may be formed in the inactive area. A circular polarizer in the display may overlap the active area and the inactive area or may overlap the active area without overlapping some or all of the inactive area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Erik G. de Jong, Jean-Pierre S. Guillou
  • Patent number: 10019097
    Abstract: An input mechanism, such as a crown, detects amounts of applied force. In various examples, an assembly including an input mechanism has an enclosure; a stem coupled to the enclosure such that the stem is rotatable, translatable, and transversely moveable with respect to the enclosure; a sensor, coupled between the stem and the housing, to which force is transferred when the stem moves with respect to the housing; and a processing unit coupled to the sensor. The processing unit is operable to determine a measurement of the force, based on a signal from the sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2018
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Colin M. Ely, Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf
  • Publication number: 20180166654
    Abstract: An electronic device is provided with a display and a light sensor that receives light that passes through the display. The display includes features that increase the amount of light that passes through the display. The features may be translucency enhancement features that allow light to pass directly through the display onto a light sensor mounted behind the display or may include a light-guiding layer that guides light through the display onto a light sensor mounted along an edge of the display. The translucency enhancement features may be formed in a reflector layer or an electrode layer for the display. The translucency enhancement features may include microperforations in a reflector layer of the display, a light-filtering reflector layer of the display, or a reflector layer of the display that passes a portion of the light and reflects an additional portion of the light.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2018
    Publication date: June 14, 2018
    Inventors: Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, Paul S. Drzaic, Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf
  • Patent number: 9977464
    Abstract: A cover for an electronic device and methods of forming a cover is disclosed. The electronic device may include a housing, and a cover coupled to the housing. The cover may have an inner surface having at least one of an intermediate polish and a final polish, a groove formed on the inner surface, and an outer surface positioned opposite the inner surface. The outer surface may have at least one of the intermediate polish and the final polish. The cover may also have a rounded perimeter portion formed between the inner surface and the outer surface. The rounded perimeter portion may be positioned adjacent the groove. The method for forming the cover may include performing a first polishing process on the sapphire component using a polishing tool, and performing a second polishing process on the groove of the sapphire component forming the cover using blasting media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2018
    Assignee: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Jeffrey C. Mylvaganam, Erik G. de Jong, Dale N. Memering, Xiao Bing Cai, Palaniappan Chinnakaruppan, Jong Kong Lee, Srikanth Kamireddi, Sawako Kamei, Feng Min, Jing Zhang, Xiang Du, Sai Feng Liu
  • Patent number: 9947901
    Abstract: An electronic device is provided with a display and a light sensor that receives light that passes through the display. The display includes features that increase the amount of light that passes through the display. The features may be translucency enhancement features that allow light to pass directly through the display onto a light sensor mounted behind the display or may include a light-guiding layer that guides light through the display onto a light sensor mounted along an edge of the display. The translucency enhancement features may be formed in a reflector layer or an electrode layer for the display. The translucency enhancement features may include microperforations in a reflector layer of the display, a light-filtering reflector layer of the display, or a reflector layer of the display that passes a portion of the light and reflects an additional portion of the light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2018
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, Paul S. Drzaic, Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf
  • Publication number: 20180048057
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal portions such as metal sidewalls. The housing may form an antenna ground for an antenna. An antenna resonating element for the antenna may be formed from a stack of capacitively coupled component layers such as a display layer, touch sensor layer, and near-field communications antenna layer at a front face of the device. An additional antenna may be formed from a peripheral resonating element that runs along a peripheral edge of the device and the antenna ground. A rear face antenna may be formed using a wireless power receiving coil as a radio-frequency antenna resonating element or may be formed from metal antenna traces on a plastic support for light-based components.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2016
    Publication date: February 15, 2018
    Inventors: Rex T. Ehman, Jayesh Nath, Carlo Di Nallo, James G. Horiuchi, Erik G. de Jong, Jason C. Sauers, Makiko K. Brzezinski, Siwen Yong, Lijun Zhang, Yi Jiang, Zheyu Wang, Mario Martinis, Eduardo Da Costa Bras Lima, Xu Han, Mattia Pascolini, Trevor J. Ness
  • Publication number: 20180048058
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch may have a housing with metal portions such as metal sidewalls. The housing may form an antenna ground for an antenna. An antenna resonating element for the antenna may be formed from a stack of capacitively coupled component layers such as a display layer, touch sensor layer, and near-field communications antenna layer at a front face of the device. An additional antenna may be formed from a peripheral resonating element that runs along a peripheral edge of the device and the antenna ground. A rear face antenna may be formed using a wireless power receiving coil as a radio-frequency antenna resonating element or may be formed from metal antenna traces on a plastic support for light-based components.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2016
    Publication date: February 15, 2018
    Inventors: Rex T. Ehman, Jayesh Nath, Carlo Di Nallo, James G. Horiuchi, Erik G. de Jong, Jason C. Sauers, Makiko K. Brzezinski, Siwen Yong, Lijun Zhang, Yi Jiang, Zheyu Wang, Mario Martinis, Eduardo Da Costa Bras Lima, Xu Han, Mattia Pascolini, Trevor J. Ness
  • Publication number: 20180024683
    Abstract: An input mechanism, such as a crown, detects amounts of applied force. In various examples, an assembly including an input mechanism has an enclosure; a stem coupled to the enclosure such that the stem is rotatable, translatable, and transversely moveable with respect to the enclosure; a sensor, coupled between the stem and the housing, to which force is transferred when the stem moves with respect to the housing; and a processing unit coupled to the sensor. The processing unit is operable to determine a measurement of the force, based on a signal from the sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2016
    Publication date: January 25, 2018
    Inventors: Colin M. Ely, Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf
  • Publication number: 20180017995
    Abstract: A housing for an electronic device is disclosed. The housing includes a first conductive component defining a first interface surface, a second conductive component defining a second interface surface facing the first interface surface, and a joint structure between the first and second interface surfaces. The joint structure includes a molded element forming a portion of an exterior surface of the housing, and a sealing member forming a watertight seal between the first and second conductive components. Methods of forming the electronic device housing are also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 15, 2016
    Publication date: January 18, 2018
    Inventors: Brian M. Gable, Carlo Di Nallo, Colin M. Ely, Craig A. Horton, Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, Henry B. Wettersten, Hoishun Li, Jason C. Sauers, Jayesh Nath, Mario Martinis, Mattia Pascolini, Michael P. Coleman, Rex T. Ehman, Zheyu Wang
  • Publication number: 20170359913
    Abstract: An electronic device having an enclosure and a cover is disclosed. The cover may be secured with the enclosure by a sealing element, or gasket. In response to using the sealing element to secure the cover with the enclosure, the sealing element may elastically deform. The elastic deformation may cause portions of the sealing element to extend into undercut regions of the cover and of the enclosure to form a first locking feature and a second locking feature, respectively. The first locking feature and the second locking feature may combine to provide a retaining force that retains the cover with the enclosure. Also, the first locking feature and the second locking feature may also provide a counterforce to a force applied to the electronic device (for example, dropping the electronic device) that prevents the cover from becoming unsecured from the enclosure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2016
    Publication date: December 14, 2017
    Inventors: Maegan K. SPENCER, Katherine E. TONG, Erik G. DE JONG
  • Patent number: 9844157
    Abstract: An electronic device having an enclosure and a cover is disclosed. The cover may be secured with the enclosure by a sealing element, or gasket. In response to using the sealing element to secure the cover with the enclosure, the sealing element may elastically deform. The elastic deformation may cause portions of the sealing element to extend into undercut regions of the cover and of the enclosure to form a first locking feature and a second locking feature, respectively. The first locking feature and the second locking feature may combine to provide a retaining force that retains the cover with the enclosure. Also, the first locking feature and the second locking feature may also provide a counterforce to a force applied to the electronic device (for example, dropping the electronic device) that prevents the cover from becoming unsecured from the enclosure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Maegan K. Spencer, Katherine E. Tong, Erik G. De Jong
  • Publication number: 20170322357
    Abstract: An organic light-emitting diode display may have an active area that contains pixels and an inactive area. The inactive area of the display may be provided with opaque masking layer structures having an appearance that matches the active area of the display when the pixels are off and are not displaying images. The opaque masking layer structures may include a polymer layer coated with a layer of metal. The display may have pixels with anodes and a cathode layer. The anodes may be formed from metal pads. Dummy structures such as a dummy cathode and dummy anodes may be formed in the inactive area. A circular polarizer in the display may overlap the active area and the inactive area or may overlap the active area without overlapping some or all of the inactive area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 21, 2017
    Publication date: November 9, 2017
    Inventors: Erik G. de Jong, Jean-Pierre S. Guillou
  • Publication number: 20170316657
    Abstract: A connectible component is connected to a housing. A sensor of the housing is utilized to detect an identity element of the at connectible component. The connectible component is identified utilizing the at least one sensor. In some implementations, identification of the connectible component may identify whether or not a connectible component is connected to the housing. In other implementations, identification of the connectible component may identify the type of connectible component that is connected. In such implementations, the housing may house an electronic device and the electronic device may be configured based on the type of connectible component that is connected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 15, 2017
    Publication date: November 2, 2017
    Inventors: Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, Trevor J. Ness
  • Publication number: 20170309988
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display. A display cover layer and a transparent inner display member may overlap a display pixel layer. The display pixel layer may have an array of display pixels for displaying images for a user. A touch sensor layer may be interposed between the display pixel layer and the transparent display member. A ferromagnetic shielding layer may be mounted below the display pixel layer. A flexible printed circuit containing coils of metal signal lines that form a near-field communications loop antenna may be interposed between the ferromagnetic shielding layer and the display pixel layer. A non-near-field antenna such as an inverted-F antenna may have a resonating element mounted on an inner surface of the display cover layer. The resonating element may be interposed between the transparent display member and the display cover layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 16, 2017
    Publication date: October 26, 2017
    Inventors: Miroslav Samardzija, Yiren Wang, Yuehui Ouyang, Joseph Hakim, Qingxiang Li, Robert W. Schlub, Ruben Caballero, Siwen Yong, Erik G. de Jong
  • Patent number: 9793599
    Abstract: An electronic device may have components mounted in a housing. The device may include wireless transceiver circuitry and antenna structures. A display may be mounted in the housing. The display may have a cover layer having an inner surface with a recess. The recess may run along a peripheral edge of the cover layer. An antenna structure such as an inverted-F antenna resonating element may be formed from a metal trace on a dielectric antenna carrier. The resonating element may be mounted in the recess without adhesive. Conductive vias may pass through the dielectric carrier. Metal members with dimples may be soldered to a flexible printed circuit and may be used to ground metal traces on the carrier and the flexible printed circuit to the housing when the carrier is attached to the housing with fasteners.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Carlo Di Nallo, Erik G. de Jong, Jayesh Nath, Mattia Pascolini, Tang Y. Tan, Yiren Wang, Zheyu Wang
  • Patent number: 9753195
    Abstract: An organic light-emitting diode display may have an active area that contains pixels and an inactive area. The inactive area of the display may be provided with opaque masking layer structures having an appearance that matches the active area of the display when the pixels are off and are not displaying images. The opaque masking layer structures may include a polymer layer coated with a layer of metal. The display may have pixels with anodes and a cathode layer. The anodes may be formed from metal pads. Dummy structures such as a dummy cathode and dummy anodes may be formed in the inactive area. A circular polarizer in the display may overlap the active area and the inactive area or may overlap the active area without overlapping some or all of the inactive area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Erik G. de Jong, Jean-Pierre S. Guillou
  • Publication number: 20170214004
    Abstract: An electronic device is provided with a display and a light sensor that receives light that passes through the display. The display includes features that increase the amount of light that passes through the display. The features may be translucency enhancement features that allow light to pass directly through the display onto a light sensor mounted behind the display or may include a light-guiding layer that guides light through the display onto a light sensor mounted along an edge of the display. The translucency enhancement features may be formed in a reflector layer or an electrode layer for the display. The translucency enhancement features may include microperforations in a reflector layer of the display, a light-filtering reflector layer of the display, or a reflector layer of the display that passes a portion of the light and reflects an additional portion of the light.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 10, 2017
    Publication date: July 27, 2017
    Inventors: Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, Paul S. Drzaic, Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf
  • Patent number: 9685690
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display. A display cover layer and a transparent inner display member may overlap a display pixel layer. The display pixel layer may have an array of display pixels for displaying images for a user. A touch sensor layer may be interposed between the display pixel layer and the transparent display member. A ferromagnetic shielding layer may be mounted below the display pixel layer. A flexible printed circuit containing coils of metal signal lines that form a near-field communications loop antenna may be interposed between the ferromagnetic shielding layer and the display pixel layer. A non-near-field antenna such as an inverted-F antenna may have a resonating element mounted on an inner surface of the display cover layer. The resonating element may be interposed between the transparent display member and the display cover layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Miroslav Samardzija, Yiren Wang, Yuehui Ouyang, Joseph Hakim, Qingxiang Li, Robert W. Schlub, Ruben Caballero, Siwen Yong, Erik G. de Jong
  • Patent number: 9678540
    Abstract: A ceramic material having an electronic component embedded therein, and more particularly to a sapphire surface having an electrically energized component embedded within. In some embodiments, the sapphire surface may take the form of a portion of a housing for an electronic device. Since sapphire may be substantially transparent, it may form a cover glass for a display within or forming part of the electronic device, as one example. The cover glass may be bonded, affixed, or otherwise attached to a remainder of the housing, thereby forming an enclosure for the electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Dale N. Memering, Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, Samuel Bruce Weiss
  • Patent number: 9680205
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with electrical components mounted in a housing. The electronic device may include wireless transceiver circuitry and antenna structures. A display may be mounted in the housing. The display may have a transparent layer such as display cover layer. The display cover layer may have an inner surface with a recess. The recess may be a groove that runs along a peripheral edge of the display cover layer. An antenna structure such as an inverted-F antenna resonating element may be formed from a metal trace on a plastic support structure. The metal trace and support structure may be mounted in the groove with adhesive. The housing may be a metal housing that forms an antenna ground. Springs may be used in forming an antenna feed and an antenna return path that couples the antenna resonating element to ground.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2017
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Qingxiang Li, Robert W. Schlub, Erik G. de Jong, Yuehui Ouyang, Siwen Yong, Miroslav Samardzija, Yiren Wang, Jiang Zhu