Patents by Inventor John Goward

John Goward 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: 11972895
    Abstract: A high-voltage optical transformer may include (1) an array of light-emitting devices that are connected in parallel with one another and are electrically coupled to an electrical input, (2) a transfer medium, and (3) an array of photovoltaic cells that (A) are optically coupled to the array of light-emitting devices via the transfer medium, (B) are connected in series with one another, and (C) produce an electrical output whose voltage is higher than the electrical input. Various other apparatuses, systems, and methods are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2024
    Assignee: Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: John Goward, Maik Andre Scheller, Anurag Tyagi, Jonathan Robert Peterson, Christopher Yuan Ting Liao
  • Publication number: 20240134115
    Abstract: An edge coupler for coupling a light beam (e.g., a laser beam) into a waveguide comprises a first waveguide section characterized by a first thickness and a first constant width, a second waveguide section physically coupled to the first waveguide section and characterized by the first thickness and a gradually decreasing width, and a third waveguide section partially overlapping with the second waveguide section at an overlap region, the third waveguide section characterized by a gradually increasing width and a second thickness different from (e.g., greater than) the first thickness. In some embodiments, a surface (e.g., the top or bottom surface) of the second waveguide section and a surface (e.g., the top or bottom surface) of the third waveguide section are on a same plane.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 17, 2023
    Publication date: April 25, 2024
    Inventors: Mohit KHURANA, John GOWARD, Rahul AGARWAL, James Ronald BONAR
  • Patent number: 11810908
    Abstract: A method of forming a high voltage optical transformer includes forming a via through a transparent carrier wafer, forming a conductive layer within the via, bonding a solid state lighting (SSL) package to a first side of the carrier wafer, and bonding a photovoltaic (PV) wafer to a second side of the carrier wafer opposite to the first side. The photovoltaic wafer may include an active area and a conductive area located outside of the active area that is in electrical contact with the conductive layer. The method further includes forming both an SSL contact with the solid state lighting package and a PV contact with the conductive layer on the same side of the carrier wafer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Christopher Yuan Ting Liao, Maik Andre Scheller, Jonathan Robert Peterson, Ehsan Vadiee, John Goward, Anurag Tyagi, Andrew John Ouderkirk
  • Patent number: 11803024
    Abstract: A device includes a light source to emit light and a light detector to receive the light emitted by the light source. The device may include a high voltage optical transformer and may be configured such that the light detector is laterally spaced away from the light source. In some architectures, the light source and the light detector may be arranged in a common plane. A photonic integrated circuit may be used to couple light emitted from the light source to the light detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Jonathan Robert Peterson, John Goward, Maik Andre Scheller, Andrew John Ouderkirk, Christopher Yuan Ting Liao, Giuseppe Calafiore, Alexander Koshelev
  • Publication number: 20230024805
    Abstract: A light source or projector for a near-eye display includes a light source subassembly optically coupled to a waveguide concentrator. The light source subassembly may include several semiconductor chips each hosting an array of emitters such s superluminescent light-emitting diodes. The semiconductor chips may be disposed side-by-side, with their emitting sides or facets coupled to the waveguide concentrator, which provides a tight array of output light ports on a common output plane of the concentrator. The output diverging beams at the array of output light ports are coupled to a collimator, which collimates the beams and couples them to an angular scanner for scanning the collimated light beams together across the field of view of the display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 4, 2022
    Publication date: January 26, 2023
    Inventors: Daniel Guenther Greif, Scott Charles McEldowney, Stephen John Holmes, Chadwick Brian Martin, Stephen James McNally, John Goward
  • Patent number: 11543570
    Abstract: An optical dimming device is provided. The optical dimming device includes a photochromic element including a photochromic composition. The photochromic composition includes a combination of a first photochromic material and a second photochromic material having different steady-state absorption profiles. In a direction from a first portion to a second portion of the photochromic element, a concentration of the first photochromic material in the combination decreases and a concentration of the second photochromic material in the combination increases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: META PLATFORMS TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Jasmine Soria Sears, John Goward, Nathan Matsuda
  • Publication number: 20220375910
    Abstract: A method of forming a high voltage optical transformer includes forming a via through a transparent carrier wafer, forming a conductive layer within the via, bonding a solid state lighting (SSL) package to a first side of the carrier wafer, and bonding a photovoltaic (PV) wafer to a second side of the carrier wafer opposite to the first side. The photovoltaic wafer may include an active area and a conductive area located outside of the active area that is in electrical contact with the conductive layer. The method further includes forming both an SSL contact with the solid state lighting package and a PV contact with the conductive layer on the same side of the carrier wafer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2021
    Publication date: November 24, 2022
    Inventors: Christopher Yuan Ting Liao, Maik Andre Scheller, Jonathan Robert Peterson, Ehsan Vadiee, John Goward, Anurag Tyagi, Andrew John Ouderkirk
  • Patent number: 11493760
    Abstract: A light source or projector for a near-eye display includes a light source subassembly optically coupled to a waveguide concentrator. The light source subassembly may include several semiconductor chips each hosting an array of emitters such s superluminescent light-emitting diodes. The semiconductor chips may be disposed side-by-side, with their emitting sides or facets coupled to the waveguide concentrator, which provides a tight array of output light ports on a common output plane of the concentrator. The output diverging beams at the array of output light ports are coupled to a collimator, which collimates the beams and couples them to an angular scanner for scanning the collimated light beams together across the field of view of the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Meta Platforms Technologies LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Guenther Grief, Scott Charles McEldowney, Stephen John Holmes, Chadwick Brian Martin, Stephen James McNally, John Goward
  • Publication number: 20220350100
    Abstract: A device includes a light source to emit light and a light detector to receive the light emitted by the light source. The device may include a high voltage optical transformer and may be configured such that the light detector is laterally spaced away from the light source. In some architectures, the light source and the light detector may be arranged in a common plane. A photonic integrated circuit may be used to couple light emitted from the light source to the light detector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2021
    Publication date: November 3, 2022
    Inventors: Jonathan Robert Peterson, John Goward, Maik Andre Scheller, Andrew John Ouderkirk, Christopher Yuan Ting Liao, Giuseppe Calafiore, Alexander Koshelev
  • Patent number: 11455031
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are techniques for eye illumination for eye position tracking. An illuminator for eye tracking includes a substrate configured to be placed in front of an eye of a user and a light source positioned on a surface of the substrate. The light source is configured to be positioned within a field of view of the eye of the user. A maximum dimension of the light source in a plane parallel to an emission surface of the light source is less than 500 ?m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: META PLATFORMS TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Robin Sharma, Andrew John Ouderkirk, Matthew E. Colburn, Qi Zhang, Giuseppe Calafiore, John Goward, Karol Constantine Hatzilias, Matthieu Charles Raoul Leibovici, Nihar Ranjan Mohanty, Selso Luanava
  • Patent number: 11422390
    Abstract: A device includes an optical assembly and a digital projector. The optical assembly is configured to receive visible scene light at a backside of the optical assembly and to direct the visible scene light on an optical path toward an eyeward side. The optical assembly includes a dimming layer disposed on the optical path. The dimming layer includes a photochromic material that is configured to darken in response to exposure to a range of light wavelengths. The digital projector is disposed on the eyeward side of the optical assembly and is configured to selectively emit an activation light within the range of light wavelengths to activate a darkening of a region of the dimming layer to dim the visible scene light within the region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Matthieu Charles Raoul Leibovici, Jasmine Soria Sears, Christophe Antoine Hurni, Nathan Matsuda, Guohua Wei, Yu Shi, John Goward
  • Publication number: 20220254974
    Abstract: For small, high-resolution, light-emitting diode (LED) displays, such as for a near-eye display in an artificial-reality headset, LEDs are spaced closely together. A backplane can be used to drive an array of LEDs in an LED display. A plurality of interconnects electrically couple the backplane with the array of LEDs. The backplane can have a different coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) than the array of LEDs. During bonding of the backplane to the array of LEDs, CTE mismatch can cause misalignment of bonding sites. The higher the bonding temperature, the greater the misalignment of bonding sites. Lower temperature bonding, using materials with lower melting or bonding temperatures, can be used to mitigate misalignment during bonding so that interconnects can be more closely spaced, which can allow LEDs to be more closely spaced, to enable a higher-resolution display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2022
    Publication date: August 11, 2022
    Inventors: Daniel Henry MORRIS, John GOWARD, Chloe Astrid Marie FABIEN, Michael GRUNDMANN
  • Patent number: 11349052
    Abstract: For small, high-resolution, light-emitting diode (LED) displays, such as for a near-eye display in an artificial-reality headset, LEDs are spaced closely together. A backplane can be used to drive an array of LEDs in an LED display. A plurality of interconnects electrically couple the backplane with the array of LEDs. The backplane can have a different coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) than the array of LEDs. During bonding of the backplane to the array of LEDs, CTE mismatch can cause misalignment of bonding sites. The higher the bonding temperature, the greater the misalignment of bonding sites. Lower temperature bonding, using materials with lower melting or bonding temperatures, can be used to mitigate misalignment during bonding so that interconnects can be more closely spaced, which can allow LEDs to be more closely spaced, to enable a higher-resolution display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Henry Morris, John Goward, Chloe Astrid Marie Fabien, Michael Grundmann
  • Patent number: 11239399
    Abstract: For small, high-resolution, light-emitting diode (LED) displays, such as for a near-eye display in an artificial-reality headset, LEDs are spaced closely together. A backplane can be used to drive an array of LEDs in an LED display. A plurality of interconnects electrically couple the backplane with the array of LEDs. As spacing between LEDs becomes smaller than interconnect spacing, a thin-film circuit layer can be used to reduce a number or interconnects between the backplane and the array of LEDs, so that interconnect spacing can be larger than LED spacing. This can allow LEDs in the LED display to be more densely arranged while still allowing use of a silicon backplane with drive circuitry to control operation of the LEDs in the LED display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: FACEBOOK TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Henry Morris, John Goward, Chloe Astrid Marie Fabien, Michael Grundmann
  • Patent number: 11209676
    Abstract: An optical assembly is configured to receive visible scene light at a backside of the optical assembly and to direct the visible scene light on an optical path toward the eyeward side. The optical assembly also includes a dimming layer disposed on the optical path, where the dimming layer includes a photochromic material that is configured to darken in response to exposure to a range of light wavelengths. An activation layer, included in the optical assembly, is also disposed on the optical path and includes an in-field dimmer. The in-field dimmer is configured to selectively emit an activation light within the range of light wavelengths to activate a darkening of a region of the dimming layer to dim the visible scene light within the region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Matthieu Charles Raoul Leibovici, Jasmine Soria Sears, Christophe Antoine Hurni, Nathan Matsuda, Guohua Wei, Yu Shi, John Goward
  • Publication number: 20210325699
    Abstract: An optical assembly is configured to receive visible scene light at a backside of the optical assembly and to direct the visible scene light on an optical path toward the eyeward side. The optical assembly also includes a dimming layer disposed on the optical path, where the dimming layer includes a photochromic material that is configured to darken in response to exposure to a range of light wavelengths. An activation layer, included in the optical assembly, is also disposed on the optical path and includes an in-field dimmer. The in-field dimmer is configured to selectively emit an activation light within the range of light wavelengths to activate a darkening of a region of the dimming layer to dim the visible scene light within the region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2020
    Publication date: October 21, 2021
    Inventors: MATTHIEU CHARLES RAOUL LEIBOVICI, JASMINE SORIA SEARS, CHRISTOPHE ANTOINE HURNI, NATHAN MATSUDA, GUOHUA WEI, YU SHI, JOHN GOWARD
  • Publication number: 20210325696
    Abstract: A device includes an optical assembly and a digital projector. The optical assembly is configured to receive visible scene light at a backside of the optical assembly and to direct the visible scene light on an optical path toward an eyeward side. The optical assembly includes a dimming layer disposed on the optical path. The dimming layer includes a photochromic material that is configured to darken in response to exposure to a range of light wavelengths. The digital projector is disposed on the eyeward side of the optical assembly and is configured to selectively emit an activation light within the range of light wavelengths to activate a darkening of a region of the dimming layer to dim the visible scene light within the region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2020
    Publication date: October 21, 2021
    Inventors: MATTHIEU CHARLES RAOUL LEIBOVICI, JASMINE SORIA SEARS, CHRISTOPHE ANTOINE HURNI, NATHAN MATSUDA, GUOHUA WEI, Yu Shi, John Goward
  • Publication number: 20210151649
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are techniques for bonding arrays of light emitting diodes (LEDs) to a plurality of driver circuits. According to certain embodiments, a method includes forming an array comprising a plurality of LEDs on a first substrate, separating the array into a plurality of sub-arrays by forming a plurality of gaps between the plurality of sub-arrays, bonding the plurality of sub-arrays to a plurality of driver circuits that are formed on a second substrate, forming an underfill within the plurality of gaps, and removing the first substrate from the plurality of sub-arrays.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2020
    Publication date: May 20, 2021
    Inventors: John Goward, Michael Grundmann
  • Publication number: 20200310120
    Abstract: A light source or projector for a near-eye display includes a light source subassembly optically coupled to a waveguide concentrator. The light source subassembly may include several semiconductor chips each hosting an array of emitters such s superluminescent light-emitting diodes. The semiconductor chips may be disposed side-by-side, with their emitting sides or facets coupled to the waveguide concentrator, which provides a tight array of output light ports on a common output plane of the concentrator. The output diverging beams at the array of output light ports are coupled to a collimator, which collimates the beams and couples them to an angular scanner for scanning the collimated light beams together across the field of view of the display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 2, 2019
    Publication date: October 1, 2020
    Inventors: Daniel Guenther Grief, Scott Charles McEldowney, Stephen John Holmes, Chadwick Brian Martin, Stephen James McNally, John Goward
  • Publication number: 20200251638
    Abstract: For small, high-resolution, light-emitting diode (LED) displays, such as for a near-eye display in an artificial-reality headset, LEDs are spaced closely together. A backplane can be used to drive an array of LEDs in an LED display. A plurality of interconnects electrically couple the backplane with the array of LEDs. The backplane can have a different coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) than the array of LEDs. During bonding of the backplane to the array of LEDs, CTE mismatch can cause misalignment of bonding sites. The higher the bonding temperature, the greater the misalignment of bonding sites. Lower temperature bonding, using materials with lower melting or bonding temperatures, can be used to mitigate misalignment during bonding so that interconnects can be more closely spaced, which can allow LEDs to be more closely spaced, to enable a higher-resolution display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 22, 2019
    Publication date: August 6, 2020
    Inventors: Daniel Henry Morris, John Goward