Patents by Inventor James E. Pedder

James E. Pedder 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).

  • Publication number: 20240081134
    Abstract: A hybrid display may include different display portions with different resolutions. The high resolution display portion may be positioned in a main viewing area for the viewer whereas the low resolution display portion may be positioned in a peripheral viewing area. The high resolution display portion may have a silicon backplane. The low resolution display portion may have a different type of backplane such as a thin-film transistor backplane. The different display portions may optionally share a common organic light-emitting diode layer such that light is emitted from the same plane across both display portions. The high resolution display portion may emit light through a transparent window in the low resolution display portion. A high resolution display may also be formed by separately forming a frontplane and a backplane. Conductive attachment structures such as indium bumps may be used to mechanically and electrically connect the backplane to the frontplane.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2023
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Inventors: James E Pedder, Patrick B Bennett, Michael Slootsky, Graham B Myhre, Andrew Lin, Cheuk Chi Lo, Guanjun Tan
  • Publication number: 20240027776
    Abstract: A lens module may include a first lens element, a lens shaping structure that is coupled to the first lens element, and a plurality of actuators that are configured to adjust a position of the lens shaping structure to adjust the first lens element. The lens module may also include a second lens element and a fluid-filled chamber between the first and second lens elements. To allow dynamic adjustments of the second lens element without requiring additional actuators, the second lens element may be a semi-rigid lens element. When the actuators adjust the curvature of the first lens element, the gauge pressure applied to the second lens element is changed. This causes a change in curvature of the second lens element. The actuators may therefore adjust the curvature of both the first and second lens elements even though none of the actuators are attached to the second lens element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2023
    Publication date: January 25, 2024
    Inventors: James E. Pedder, Igor Stamenov, Richard J. Topliss, Thomas M. Gregory, Michael D. Simmonds
  • Publication number: 20230324676
    Abstract: A lens module may include a transparent lens element, a lens shaping structure that is coupled to the transparent lens element, and a plurality of actuators that are configured to adjust a position of the lens shaping structure to adjust the transparent lens element. The lens shaping structure may include a plurality of extensions that are each coupled to a respective actuator. To ensure the lens shaping structure has desired curvature between the extensions, the lens shaping structure may have a portion in one or more segments between adjacent extensions that has a property with a different magnitude than an additional portion of the lens shaping structure. The portion between the adjacent extensions may have an increased or decreased rigidity relative to the additional portions. The portion between the adjacent extensions may have a different width, thickness, or Young's modulus compared to the additional portions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2023
    Publication date: October 12, 2023
    Inventors: Igor Stamenov, Richard J. Topliss, Ran He, Peng Lv, Yuan Li, James E. Pedder, Thomas M. Gregory
  • Patent number: 11768376
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a head-mounted display or other display system may have a transparent display. The transparent display may be formed from a transparent display panel or a display device that provides images to a transparent optical coupler. A user may view real-world objects through the transparent display. Control circuitry can direct the transparent display to display computer-generated content over selected portions of the real-world objects. The head-mounted display may have adjustable components through which the user may view the real-world objects. The adjustable components may include an adjustable light modulator, an adjustable color filter, and an adjustable polarizer. The control circuitry may adjust these components based on information from a front-facing camera that captures images of the real-world objects, based on information from a gaze tracking camera, and based on other input.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: James E. Pedder, James H. Foster, Julian Hoening, Julian Jaede
  • Publication number: 20230258944
    Abstract: A head-mounted device may have lenses. A user may view images through the lenses from eye boxes. The lenses may be tunable liquid lenses. Each lens may have a lens chamber. The lens chamber of the lens may have rigid and/or flexible walls that form optical lens surfaces. Actuators and/or pump and reservoir systems may deform the lens surfaces in response to control signals from a control circuit to tune the lens. Each liquid lens may have oil or other liquid in the lens chamber for that lens. Inorganic dielectric particles or other refractive-index-adjustment particles may be used to adjust the refractive index of the lens. The particles may be subwavelength in size.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 28, 2023
    Publication date: August 17, 2023
    Inventors: Sebastien Bolis, Arnaud Pouydebasque, Igor Stamenov, James E. Pedder, Nachiappan Chidambaram
  • Publication number: 20230222955
    Abstract: Display panel redundancy schemes and methods of operation are described. In an embodiment, and display panel includes an array of drivers (e.g. microdrivers), each of which including multiple portions to independently receive control and pixel bits. In an embodiment, each driver portion is to control a group of redundant emission elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2022
    Publication date: July 13, 2023
    Inventors: Kapil V. Sakariya, Tore Nauta, Hopil Bae, Henry C. Jen, James E. Pedder, Sunggu Kang, Shingo Hatanaka, Xiang Lu, Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi, Hasan Akyol, Saif Choudhary, Ion Bita
  • Patent number: 11573661
    Abstract: An electronic device is disclosed which includes a conductive layer for providing haptic feedback at an input surface of the electronic device. The conductive layer includes conductive particles within an organic compound, such as an epoxy. When the conductive layer is activated it may provide frictional or other tactile feedback at the input surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaonan Wen, James E. Pedder
  • Patent number: 11568789
    Abstract: Display panel redundancy schemes and methods of operation are described. In an embodiment, and display panel includes an array of drivers (e.g. microdrivers), each of which including multiple portions to independently receive control and pixel bits. In an embodiment, each driver portion is to control a group of redundant emission elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Inventors: Kapil V. Sakariya, Tore Nauta, Hopil Bae, Henry C. Jen, James E. Pedder, Sunggu Kang, Shingo Hatanaka, Xiang Lu, Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi, Hasan Akyol, Saif Choudhary, Ion Bita
  • Patent number: 11435583
    Abstract: An electronic device may have back-to-back displays. A user-facing display may have microlenses, tunable lens structures, holograms, lasers, and other structures for displaying images in multiple eye boxes while the electronic device is being worn on the head of a user. In some configurations, a switchable diffuser may be incorporated into the user-facing display. In one mode, the switchable diffuser allows microlenses of the pixels of the user-facing display to provide images to eye boxes in which images from the display are viewable. In another mode, the switchable diffuser diffuses light from the pixels so that the user-facing display may be used while the device is being held in the hand of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: James E. Pedder, James H. Foster, Paul G. Puskarich, Thomas M. Gregory, Richard J. Topliss, Patrick R. Gill
  • Patent number: 11309372
    Abstract: An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display may have an array of organic light-emitting diode pixels that each have OLED layers interposed between a cathode and an anode. Voltage may be applied to the anode of each pixel to control the magnitude of emitted light. The conductivity of the OLED layers may allow leakage current to pass between neighboring anodes in the display. To reduce leakage current and the accompanying cross-talk in a display, the pixel definition layer may disrupt continuity of the OLED layers. The pixel definition layer may have a steep sidewall, a sidewall with an undercut, or a sidewall surface with a plurality of curves to disrupt continuity of the OLED layers. A control gate that is coupled to a bias voltage and covered by gate dielectric may be used to form an organic thin-film transistor that shuts the leakage current channel between adjacent anodes on the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jaein Choi, Andrew Lin, Cheuk Chi Lo, Chun-Yao Huang, Gloria Wong, Hairong Tang, Hitoshi Yamamoto, James E. Pedder, KiBeom Kim, Kwang Ohk Cheon, Lei Yuan, Michael Slootsky, Rui Liu, Steven E. Molesa, Sunggu Kang, Wendi Chang, Chun-Ming Tang, Cheng Chen, Ivan Knez, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Giovanni Carbone, Graham B. Myhre, Jungmin Lee
  • Patent number: 11217567
    Abstract: Display panels and methods of manufacture are described for down converting a peak emission wavelength of a pump LED within a subpixel with a quantum dot layer. In some embodiments, pump LEDs with a peak emission wavelength below 500 nm, such as between 340 nm and 420 nm are used. QD layers in accordance with embodiments can be integrated into a variety of display panel structures including a wavelength conversion cover arrangement, QD patch arrangement, or QD layers patterned on the display substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Inventors: Jonathan S. Steckel, Jean-Jacques P. Drolet, Roland Van Gelder, Kelly C. McGroddy, Ion Bita, James Michael Perkins, Andreas Bibl, Sajjad A. Khan, James E. Pedder, Elmar Gehlen
  • Publication number: 20210366349
    Abstract: Display panel redundancy schemes and methods of operation are described. In an embodiment, and display panel includes an array of drivers (e.g. microdrivers), each of which including multiple portions to independently receive control and pixel bits. In an embodiment, each driver portion is to control a group of redundant emission elements.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2021
    Publication date: November 25, 2021
    Inventors: Kapil V. SAKARIYA, Tore NAUTA, Hopil BAE, Henry C. JEN, James E. PEDDER, Sunggu KANG, Shingo HATANAKA, Xiang LU, Mahdi Farrokh BAROUGHI, Hasan AKYOL, Saif CHOUDHARY, Ion BITA
  • Publication number: 20210286108
    Abstract: A head-mounted device may include one or more adjustable lens elements. The adjustable lens element may include a transparent substrate, a collapsible wall that forms an enclosed perimeter on the transparent substrate, and a flexible membrane on the collapsible wall that together define an interior volume. The interior volume may be filled with a fluid. The adjustable lens element may include a lens shaping component that applies a force to the collapsible wall to adjust a height of the collapsible wall relative to the transparent substrate, which in turn may be used to adjust the shape of the flexible membrane and thus the lens power of the lens element. The collapsible wall may have bellows that allow the collapsible wall to fold on itself when compressed, thereby minimizing unintended lateral movement of the collapsible wall.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2021
    Publication date: September 16, 2021
    Inventors: Richard J. Topliss, Igor Stamenov, Ran He, Yuan Li, Peng Lv, James E. Pedder
  • Patent number: 11073934
    Abstract: An electronic device includes an electrostatic conductive layer for providing haptic feedback at an input surface of the electronic device. The electrostatic conductive layer is included in a cover assembly positioned over a display. The cover assembly includes a cover sheet, a touch sensor, and the electrostatic conductive layer. The electrostatic conductive layer is driven by an electric field, which electric field is produced by the touch sensor. When the electrostatic conductive layer is activated, it may provide frictional or other tactile feedback at the input surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaonan Wen, James E. Pedder
  • Patent number: 11056041
    Abstract: Display panel redundancy schemes and methods of operation are described. In an embodiment, and display panel includes an array of drivers (e.g. microdrivers), each of which including multiple portions to independently receive control and pixel bits. In an embodiment, each driver portion is to control a group of redundant emission elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Inventors: Kapil V. Sakariya, Tore Nauta, Hopil Bae, Henry C. Jen, James E. Pedder, Sunggu Kang, Shingo Hatanaka, Xiang Lu, Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi, Hasan Akyol, Saif Choudhary, Ion Bita
  • Publication number: 20210041705
    Abstract: A lens module in a head-mounted device may include a fluid-filled chamber, a semi-rigid lens element that at least partially defines the fluid-filled chamber, and at least one actuator configured to selectively bend the semi-rigid lens element. The semi-rigid lens element may become rigid along a first axis when the lens element is curved along a second axis perpendicular to the first axis. Six actuators that are evenly distributed around the periphery of the semi-rigid lens element may be used to control the curvature of the semi-rigid lens element. The semi-rigid lens element may initially be planar or non-planar. For example, the semi-rigid lens element may initially have a spherically convex surface and a spherically concave surface. A tunable spherical lens may be incorporated into the lens module to offset a parasitic spherical lens power from the semi-rigid lens element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 28, 2020
    Publication date: February 11, 2021
    Inventors: James E. Pedder, Igor Stamenov, Cheng Chen, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Graham B. Myhre, Victoria C. Chan, Xiaonan Wen, Peng Lv, Yuan Li, Yu Horie, Siddharth S. Hazra
  • Publication number: 20200401228
    Abstract: An electronic device is disclosed which includes a conductive layer for providing haptic feedback at an input surface of the electronic device. The conductive layer includes conductive particles within an organic compound, such as an epoxy. When the conductive layer is activated it may provide frictional or other tactile feedback at the input surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2020
    Publication date: December 24, 2020
    Inventors: Xiaonan Wen, James E. Pedder
  • Patent number: 10852553
    Abstract: A lens module in a head-mounted device may include a fluid-filled chamber, a semi-rigid lens element that at least partially defines the fluid-filled chamber, and at least one actuator configured to selectively bend the semi-rigid lens element. The semi-rigid lens element may become rigid along a first axis when the lens element is curved along a second axis perpendicular to the first axis. Six actuators that are evenly distributed around the periphery of the semi-rigid lens element may be used to control the curvature of the semi-rigid lens element. The semi-rigid lens element may initially be planar or non-planar. For example, the semi-rigid lens element may initially have a spherically convex surface and a spherically concave surface. A tunable spherical lens may be incorporated into the lens module to offset a parasitic spherical lens power from the semi-rigid lens element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: James E. Pedder, Igor Stamenov, Cheng Chen, Enkhamgalan Dorjgotov, Graham B. Myhre, Victoria C. Chan, Xiaonan Wen, Peng Lv, Yuan Li, Yu Horie, Siddharth S. Hazra
  • Publication number: 20200312824
    Abstract: Display panels and methods of manufacture are described for down converting a peak emission wavelength of a pump LED within a subpixel with a quantum dot layer. In some embodiments, pump LEDs with a peak emission wavelength below 500 nm, such as between 340 nm and 420 nm are used. QD layers in accordance with embodiments can be integrated into a variety of display panel structures including a wavelength conversion cover arrangement, QD patch arrangement, or QD layers patterned on the display substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 28, 2020
    Publication date: October 1, 2020
    Inventors: Jonathan S. Steckel, Jean-Jacques P. Drolet, Roland Van Gelder, Kelly C. McGroddy, Ion Bita, James Michael Perkins, Andreas Bibl, Sajjad A. Khan, James E. Pedder, Elmar Gehlen
  • Patent number: 10775890
    Abstract: An electronic device is disclosed which includes a conductive layer for providing haptic feedback at an input surface of the electronic device. The conductive layer includes conductive particles within an organic compound, such as an epoxy. When the conductive layer is activated it may provide frictional or other tactile feedback at the input surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaonan Wen, James E. Pedder