Patents by Inventor Paul S. Drzaic

Paul S. Drzaic 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: 20210318715
    Abstract: An electronic device display may have pixels formed from crystalline semiconductor light-emitting diode dies, organic light-emitting diodes, or other pixel structures. The pixels may be formed in a display panel having a single substrate or an array of display panel tiles. The display panel has inwardly facing display panel contacts that mate with corresponding outwardly facing interconnect substrate contacts on an interconnect substrate. The interconnect substrate may have areas with compound curvature that are overlapped by the display panel. To enhance flexibility of the interconnect substrate, the interconnect substrate may have flexibility enhancement openings and/or may be formed from a material with a low elastic modulus such as silicone or other elastomeric material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2021
    Publication date: October 14, 2021
    Inventors: Mingjing Ha, Kuan H. Lu, Paul S. Drzaic, Yung-Yu Hsu, Yong Sun, Zhen Zhang, Bulong Wu, Marc J. DeVincentis, Paolo Sacchetto, Han-Chieh Chang, Anshi Liang
  • Publication number: 20210320281
    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: June 24, 2021
    Publication date: October 14, 2021
    Inventors: Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, Paul S. Drzaic, Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf
  • Patent number: 11146871
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a voice-controlled speaker device may have a housing characterized by a vertical longitudinal axis. A flexible substrate such as a flexible mesh substrate with component support regions coupled by flexible segments may be wrapped around the housing and the vertical axis. The housing may have surface regions with compound curvature. The flexible substrate may conform to the regions with compound curvature. A fabric spacer layer may be interposed between the flexible substrate and the housing. Electrical components such as input-output devices may be mounted to the component support regions. A display may be formed from an array of light-emitting devices that are mounted on respective component support regions. Light from the light-emitting devices may pass through the fabric spacer layer toward the housing and back out away from the housing. An outer fabric layer may cover the mesh.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel D. Sunshine, Kathryn P. Crews, Tirshathah A. Hunter, Kathleen A. Bergeron, Mingjing Ha, Shubham A. Gandhi, Paul S. Drzaic, Yung-Yu Hsu, David W. Lum
  • Patent number: 11137648
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with a display having a thin-film transistor layer. One or more holes in the thin-film transistor layer may be used to form pathways from display circuitry to other circuitry underneath the display. One or more conductive bridges may pass through holes in the thin-film transistor layer and may have one end that couples to the display circuitry and a second end that couples to a printed circuit underneath the display. These conductive bridges may be formed from wire bonding. Wire bond connections may be encapsulated with potting material to improve the reliability of the wire bond and increase the resiliency of the display. Display signal lines may be routed through holes in a thin-film transistor layer to run along a backside of the display thereby reducing the need for space in the border region for display circuitry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Paul S. Drzaic, Jeremy C. Franklin, Stephen Brian Lynch, Scott A. Myers, Benjamin M. Rappoport, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, John P. Ternus
  • Patent number: 11079797
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display with an array of pixels for displaying images. The display may have a window region. During operation, a component such as an optical component may operate through the window region. The window region may overlap a movable portion of the display. The window region may be operated in open and closed states. In the closed state, the movable portion of the display overlaps the window region and pixels in the movable display portion emit light through the window region. In the open state, the movable portion of the display is moved away from the window region so that light for the optical component may pass through the window region. The optical component may be a camera or other component that receives light through the window region or may be an optical component that emits light through the window region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Roei Remez, Shay Yosub, Hoon Sik Kim, Assaf Avraham, Omer Eden, Paul S. Drzaic, Rafi Ambar, Refael Della Pergola
  • Patent number: 11049438
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates generally systems and methods for controlling current provided to display devices. A method for controlling the current may include receiving drive current values associated with subpixels in a display and receiving information that corresponds to an application type being rendered on the display and/or an indication of image data being rendered on the display. The method may then include reducing at least some of the drive current values based at least in part on the application type. Alternatively, the method may include reducing the at least a portion of the image data corresponding to the at least some of the drive current values has substantially similar luminance and color values. The method may then include supplying the subpixels with drive currents that correspond to the drive current values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Paul S. Drzaic
  • Patent number: 11050044
    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: October 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, Paul S. Drzaic, Erik G. de Jong, Fletcher R. Rothkopf
  • Patent number: 11003289
    Abstract: Flexible touch sensor panels can be implemented on a strap of a wearable device. A flexible touch sensor panel can provide an additional touch sensitive surface for a user to activate functions on the wearable device without covering a touch screen of the wearable device. In some examples, the flexible touch sensor panels can include electrode connectors configured to electrically couple touch electrodes of the flexible touch sensor panel. In some examples, the electrode connectors can have a serpentine routing pattern configured to allow the touch electrodes to move closer together or farther apart while maintaining electrical coupling between the touch electrodes. In some examples, the touch electrodes can have gaps configured to allow light to pass through the gaps. In some examples, an LED panel can be formed below or one or more waveguide layers can be formed above the flexible touch sensor panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yung-Yu Hsu, Mingjing Ha, Paul S. Drzaic, David W. Lum, Bryce T. Bradford, Shubham Gandhi
  • Patent number: 10983482
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a wristwatch device or other device may have a display. The display may be used to continuously display information such as watch face information. A watch face image on the display may contain watch face elements such as watch face hands, watch face indices, and complications. To reduce burn-in risk for watch face elements, control circuitry in the electronic device may impose burn-in constraints on attributes of the watch face elements such as peak luminance constraints, dwell time constraints, color constraints, constraints on the shape of each element, and constraints on element style. These constraints may help avoid situations in which static elements such as watch face indices create more burn-in than dynamic elements such as watch face hands.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Tae-Wook Koh, Yiqiang Nie, Yifan Zhang, Giovanni M. Agnoli, Paul S. Drzaic, David A. Doyle
  • Publication number: 20210096595
    Abstract: Protective cover layers for electronic devices are described. In an embodiment, an electronic device includes a display panel and a protective cover layer over the display panel. The protective cover layer includes a transparent support substrate and a hardcoat layer covering an exterior facing surface of the transparent support substrate. The display panel may be a flexible display panel and the protective cover layer may flex with the flexible display panel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2020
    Publication date: April 1, 2021
    Inventors: Hoon Sik Kim, Chang-Chia Huang, Christopher D. Jones, Masato Kuwabara, Nikhil D. Kalyankar, Terry C. Shyu, Yasmin F. Afsar, Paul S. Drzaic
  • Publication number: 20210091007
    Abstract: A fabric-based item may include fabric such as woven fabric having insulating and conductive yarns or other strands of material. The conductive yarns may form signal paths. Electrical components can be embedded within pockets in the fabric. Each electrical component may have an electrical device such as a semiconductor die that is mounted on an interposer substrate. The electrical device may be a light-emitting diode, a sensor, an actuator, or other electrical device. The electrical device may have contacts that are soldered to contacts on the interposer. The interposer may have additional contacts that are soldered to the signal paths. The fabric may have portions that form transparent windows overlapping the electrical components or that have other desired attributes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2020
    Publication date: March 25, 2021
    Inventors: Daniel D. Sunshine, Paul S. Drzaic, Daniel A. Podhajny, David M. Kindlon, Hoon Sik Kim, Kathryn P. Crews, Yung-Yu Hsu
  • Publication number: 20210064167
    Abstract: An electronic device such as a voice-controlled speaker device may have a cylindrical shape with upper and lower ends that have surface regions of compound curvature. The electronic device may have a display formed form an array of light-emitting devices such as light-emitting diodes. To provide the display with desired curvature (such as compound curvature), the display may be thermoformed. A flexible substrate for the display may be attached to a separate thermoplastic substrate. During a thermoforming process, the display may be heated such that the thermoplastic substrate softens into a pliable state. The display may then be molded into a desired shape. The display is then cooled to harden the thermoplastic substrate and secure the flexible substrate and light-emitting diodes in the desired shape. The thermoformed display may be stacked with additional functional layers such as a thermoformed touch-sensitive layer and/or a thermoformed lens layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2019
    Publication date: March 4, 2021
    Inventors: Yung-Yu Hsu, Kuan H. Lu, Mingjing Ha, Paul S. Drzaic, Yeguang Xue
  • Publication number: 20210063804
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with a display having a thin-film transistor layer. One or more holes in the thin-film transistor layer may be used to form pathways from display circuitry to other circuitry underneath the display. One or more conductive bridges may pass through holes in the thin-film transistor layer and may have one end that couples to the display circuitry and a second end that couples to a printed circuit underneath the display. These conductive bridges may be formed from wire bonding. Wire bond connections may be encapsulated with potting material to improve the reliability of the wire bond and increase the resiliency of the display. Display signal lines may be routed through holes in a thin-film transistor layer to run along a backside of the display thereby reducing the need for space in the border region for display circuitry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2020
    Publication date: March 4, 2021
    Inventors: Paul S. Drzaic, Jeremy C. Franklin, Stephen Brian Lynch, Scott A. Myers, Benjamin M. Rappoport, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, John P. Ternus
  • Patent number: 10930710
    Abstract: A display may have an array of pixels. Each pixel may have a light-emitting diode such as an organic light-emitting diode or may be formed from other pixel structures such as liquid crystal display pixel structures. The pixels may emit light such as red, green, and blue light. An angle-of-view adjustment layer may overlap the array of pixels. During operation, light from the pixels passes through the angle-of-view adjustment layer to a user. The viewing angle for the user is enhanced as the angular spread of the emitted light from the pixels is enhanced by the angle-of-view adjustment layer. The angle-of-view adjustment layer may be formed from holographic structures recorded by applying laser beams to a photosensitive layer or may be formed from a metasurface that is created by patterning nanostructures on the display using printing, photolithography, or other patterning techniques.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Paul S. Drzaic
  • Patent number: 10910315
    Abstract: A fabric-based item may include fabric such as woven fabric having insulating and conductive yarns or other strands of material. The conductive yarns may form signal paths. Electrical components can be embedded within pockets in the fabric. Each electrical component may have an electrical device such as a semiconductor die that is mounted on an interposer substrate. The electrical device may be a light-emitting diode, a sensor, an actuator, or other electrical device. The electrical device may have contacts that are soldered to contacts on the interposer. The interposer may have additional contacts that are soldered to the signal paths. The fabric may have portions that form transparent windows overlapping the electrical components or that have other desired attributes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel D. Sunshine, Paul S. Drzaic, Daniel A. Podhajny, David M. Kindlon, Hoon Sik Kim, Kathryn P. Crews, Yung-Yu Hsu
  • Patent number: 10877332
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with a display having a thin-film transistor layer. One or more holes in the thin-film transistor layer may be used to form pathways from display circuitry to other circuitry underneath the display. One or more conductive bridges may pass through holes in the thin-film transistor layer and may have one end that couples to the display circuitry and a second end that couples to a printed circuit underneath the display. These conductive bridges may be formed from wire bonding. Wire bond connections may be encapsulated with potting material to improve the reliability of the wire bond and increase the resiliency of the display. Display signal lines may be routed through holes in a thin-film transistor layer to run along a backside of the display thereby reducing the need for space in the border region for display circuitry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Paul S. Drzaic, Jeremy C. Franklin, Stephen Brian Lynch, Scott A. Myers, Benjamin M. Rappoport, Fletcher R. Rothkopf, John P. Ternus
  • Publication number: 20200350253
    Abstract: A fabric-based item may include fabric layers and other layers of material. An array of electrical components may be mounted in the fabric-based item. The electrical components may be mounted to a support structure such as a flexible printed circuit. The flexible printed circuit may have a mesh shape formed from an array of openings. Serpentine flexible printed circuit segments may extend between the openings. The electrical components may be light-emitting diodes or other electrical devices. Polymer with light-scattering particles or other materials may cover the electrical components. The flexible printed circuit may be laminated between fabric layers or other layers of material in the fabric-based item.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 21, 2020
    Publication date: November 5, 2020
    Inventors: Daniel D. Sunshine, Paul S. Drzaic, Daniel A. Podhajny, David M. Kindlon, Hoon Sik Kim, Kathryn P. Crews, Yung-Yu Hsu
  • Patent number: 10817016
    Abstract: Protective cover layers for electronic devices are described. In an embodiment, an electronic device includes a display panel and a protective cover layer over the display panel. The protective cover layer includes a transparent support substrate and a hardcoat layer covering an exterior facing surface of the transparent support substrate. The display panel may be a flexible display panel and the protective cover layer may flex with the flexible display panel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Hoon Sik Kim, Chang-Chia Huang, Christopher D. Jones, Masato Kuwabara, Nikhil D. Kalyankar, Terry C. Shyu, Yasmin F. Afsar, Paul S. Drzaic
  • Publication number: 20200313111
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a hinge that allows the device to be flexed about a bend axis. A display may span the bend axis. To facilitate bending about the bend axis without damage, the display may include a display cover layer with a flexible portion. The flexible portion of the display cover layer may be interposed between first and second rigid portions of the display cover layer. The display cover layer may also include a layer with self-healing properties. The layer of self-healing material may be formed across the entire display cover layer or may be formed only in the flexible region of the display cover layer. The display cover layer may include a layer of elastomer in the flexible region of the display cover layer for increased flexibility. Self-healing may be initiated or expedited by externally applied heat, light, electric current, or other type of external stimulus.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 28, 2020
    Publication date: October 1, 2020
    Inventors: Hoon Sik Kim, Terry C. Lam, Chang-Chia Huang, Paul S. Drzaic, Yasmin F. Afsar, Young Cheol Yang, Leiming Wang
  • Patent number: 10756020
    Abstract: A fabric-based item may include fabric layers and other layers of material. An array of electrical components may be mounted in the fabric-based item. The electrical components may be mounted to a support structure such as a flexible printed circuit. The flexible printed circuit may have a mesh shape formed from an array of openings. Serpentine flexible printed circuit segments may extend between the openings. The electrical components may be light-emitting diodes or other electrical devices. Polymer with light-scattering particles or other materials may cover the electrical components. The flexible printed circuit may be laminated between fabric layers or other layers of material in the fabric-based item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel D. Sunshine, Paul S. Drzaic, Daniel A. Podhajny, David M. Kindlon, Hoon Sik Kim, Kathryn P. Crews, Yung-Yu Hsu