Patents by Inventor Wei H. Yao

Wei H. Yao 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: 20240054973
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display with an array of pixels. The device may have an array of components such as an array of light sensors for capturing fingerprints of a user through an array of corresponding transparent windows in the display. A capacitive touch sensor, proximity sensor, force sensor, or other sensor may be used by control circuitry in the device to monitor for the presence of a user's finger over the array of light sensors. In response, the control circuitry can direct the display to illuminate a subset of the pixels, thereby illuminating the user's finger and causing reflected light from the finger to illuminate the array of light sensors for a fingerprint capture operation. The display may have display driver circuitry that facilitates the momentary illumination of the subset of pixels with uniform flash data while image data is displayed in other portions of the display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2023
    Publication date: February 15, 2024
    Inventors: Koorosh Aflatooni, Minhyuk Choi, Mohammad Ali Jangda, Sang Y. Youn, Yafei Bi, Jean-Pierre Guillou, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20240013692
    Abstract: To reduce overall power consumption for an electronic display power management integrated circuit (PMIC), one of multiple electric power converters and/or electric power regulators may be selected based on an electrical load (e.g., due to the total brightness of the content displayed) on the electronic display at a given moment. In some embodiments, the PMIC may include a less efficient heavy load converter designed with high-current handling capability and a more efficient light load (e.g., low current) converter with lower current handling capability. A controller may dynamically select between the converters depending on a present load or an expected load on the electronic display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2023
    Publication date: January 11, 2024
    Inventors: Jie Won Ryu, Ardra Singh, Arthur L. Spence, Christopher P. Tann, Chun Lu, Daniel J. Drusch, Hyunwoo Nho, Jongyup Lim, Kingsuk Brahma, Marc J. DeVincentis, Mohammad Ali Jangda, Paolo Sacchetto, Peter F. Holland, Shawn P. Hurley, Wei H. Yao, Yue Jack Chu, Zhe Hua
  • Patent number: 11842708
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display with an array of pixels. The device may have an array of components such as an array of light sensors for capturing fingerprints of a user through an array of corresponding transparent windows in the display. A capacitive touch sensor, proximity sensor, force sensor, or other sensor may be used by control circuitry in the device to monitor for the presence of a user's finger over the array of light sensors. In response, the control circuitry can direct the display to illuminate a subset of the pixels, thereby illuminating the user's finger and causing reflected light from the finger to illuminate the array of light sensors for a fingerprint capture operation. The display may have display driver circuitry that facilitates the momentary illumination of the subset of pixels with uniform flash data while image data is displayed in other portions of the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Koorosh Aflatooni, Minhyuk Choi, Mohammad Ali Jangda, Sang Y. Youn, Yafei Bi, Jean-Pierre Guillou, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20230368718
    Abstract: To reduce image artifacts and non-uniformity associated with a display pixel of an electronic display, processing circuity may adjust a luminance value corresponding to a display pixel according to a per-pixel gain mask, a per-pixel anode mask, or both. To further correct for the non-uniformity, the processing circuitry may convert the luminance value to a digital code based on a curve associated with an anode on which the display pixel is located.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 6, 2023
    Publication date: November 16, 2023
    Inventors: Sunmin Jang, Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi, Saif Choudhary, Hopil Bae, Gautam Agrawal, Ionut A Mirel, Hari P Paudel, Haitao Li, Wei H Yao, Mahesh B Chappalli
  • Patent number: 11810534
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display layer for displaying images. An optical coupling layer having an input surface that receives light from the display panel may convey the light from the input surface to an output surface. The output surface may have different dimensions than the display layer and may have any desired shape. To account for the displacement of light between the active area and the outer surface of the optical coupling layer and to ensure the output image is perceived with the desired distortion, image data may be rendered for the output surface then modified to account for the distortion and displacement that will occur later when the image is transported by the optical coupling layer from the display active area to the output surface of the optical coupling layer. Image distortion control circuitry may modify the rendered image data based on a distortion map.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yi Qiao, Jean-Pierre S. Guillou, Yingying Tang, Michael J. Brown, Paul C. Kelley, Tyler R. Kakuda, Hao Dong, Ying-Chih Wang, Chaohao Wang, Shaorui Yang, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20230259226
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display. The display may be formed by an array of light-emitting diodes mounted to the surface of a substrate. The substrate may be a silicon substrate. Circuitry may be located in spaces between the light-emitting diodes. Circuitry may also be located on the rear surface of the silicon substrate and may be coupled to the array of light-emitting diodes using through-silicon vias. The circuitry may include integrated circuits and other components that are attached to the substrate and may include transistors and other circuitry formed within the silicon substrate. Touch sensor electrodes, light sensors, and other components may be located in the spaces between the light-emitting diodes. The substrate may be formed from a transparent material that allows image light to reach a lens and image sensor mounted below the substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 24, 2023
    Publication date: August 17, 2023
    Inventors: Wei Chen, Steven P. Hotelling, John Z. Zhong, William C. Athas, Wei H. Yao
  • Patent number: 11688364
    Abstract: An electronic device may display image content via a tile-based display by controlling light emission from display pixels of the tile-based display. Based on image data associated with the image content, a processing circuitry of the tile-based display may receive a potential tile boundary. The processing circuitry may resample the image data based on geometry of the tile boundary and positions of the display pixels on the tile-based panel. After resampling the image data, the processing circuitry may adjust gain of the tile boundary display pixels according to a gain mask to compensate for the tile boundary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Hari P Paudel, Chaohao Wang, Hopil Bae, Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi, Wei Chen, Wei H Yao, Seung B Rim, Sunmin Jang
  • Patent number: 11669178
    Abstract: An electronic device may include a display. The display may be formed by an array of light-emitting diodes mounted to the surface of a substrate. The substrate may be a silicon substrate. Circuitry may be located in spaces between the light-emitting diodes. Circuitry may also be located on the rear surface of the silicon substrate and may be coupled to the array of light-emitting diodes using through-silicon vias. The circuitry may include integrated circuits and other components that are attached to the substrate and may include transistors and other circuitry formed within the silicon substrate. Touch sensor electrodes, light sensors, and other components may be located in the spaces between the light-emitting diodes. The substrate may be formed from a transparent material that allows image light to reach a lens and image sensor mounted below the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Wei Chen, Steven P. Hotelling, John Z. Zhong, William C. Athas, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20230169936
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display with an array of pixels. The device may have an array of components such as an array of light sensors for capturing fingerprints of a user through an array of corresponding transparent windows in the display. A capacitive touch sensor, proximity sensor, force sensor, or other sensor may be used by control circuitry in the device to monitor for the presence of a user's finger over the array of light sensors. In response, the control circuitry can direct the display to illuminate a subset of the pixels, thereby illuminating the user's finger and causing reflected light from the finger to illuminate the array of light sensors for a fingerprint capture operation. The display may have display driver circuitry that facilitates the momentary illumination of the subset of pixels with uniform flash data while image data is displayed in other portions of the display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2023
    Publication date: June 1, 2023
    Inventors: Koorosh Aflatooni, Minhyuk Choi, Mohammad Ali Jangda, Sang Y. Youn, Yafei Bi, Jean-Pierre Guillou, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20230089942
    Abstract: This disclosure provides various techniques for providing fine-grain digital and analog pixel compensation to account for voltage error across an electronic display. By employing a two-dimensional digital compensation and a local analog compensation, a fine-grain and robust pixel compensation scheme may be provided to the electronic display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 16, 2022
    Publication date: March 23, 2023
    Inventors: Yao Shi, Wei H Yao, Hyunwoo Nho, Jie Won Ryu, Kingsuk Brahma, Li-Xuan Chuo, Hyunsoo Kim, Myungjoon Choi, Ce Zhang, Alex H Pai, Shengkui Gao, Rungrot Kitsomboonloha, Shatam Agarwal, Vehbi Calayir, Chaohao Wang, Steven N Hanna, Pei-En Chang
  • Publication number: 20230087088
    Abstract: A display may be formed by an array of light-emitting diodes mounted to the surface of a display substrate. The light-emitting diodes may be inorganic light-emitting diodes formed from separate crystalline semiconductor structures. An array of pixel control circuits may be used to control light emission from the light-emitting diodes. Each pixel control circuit may be configured to control one or more respective passive matrices. To control partial pixel cells in the display, a donor pixel control circuit in a partial pixel cell may control the pixels in a receptor partial pixel cell without a pixel control circuit. To mitigate the size of an inactive area of the display, fanout signal lines for the display may be formed in the light-emitting active area of the display. The fanout signal lines may be formed between a row of pixel control circuits and a bottom edge of the light-emitting active area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2022
    Publication date: March 23, 2023
    Inventors: Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi, Sandeep Chalasani, Xiang Lu, Anurag Mehta, Hopil Bae, Chaohao Wang, Rajesh Velayuthan, Steven E. Molesa, Yaser Azizi, Young Don Bae, Sunmin Jang, Haitao Li, Hari P. Paudel, Anatole Huang, Tyler R. Kakuda, David A. Doyle, Wei H. Yao, Majid Gharghi, Vaibhav D. Patel
  • Patent number: 11580934
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display with an array of pixels. The device may have an array of components such as an array of light sensors for capturing fingerprints of a user through an array of corresponding transparent windows in the display. A capacitive touch sensor, proximity sensor, force sensor, or other sensor may be used by control circuitry in the device to monitor for the presence of a user's finger over the array of light sensors. In response, the control circuitry can direct the display to illuminate a subset of the pixels, thereby illuminating the user's finger and causing reflected light from the finger to illuminate the array of light sensors for a fingerprint capture operation. The display may have display driver circuitry that facilitates the momentary illumination of the subset of pixels with uniform flash data while image data is displayed in other portions of the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Koorosh Aflatooni, Minhyuk Choi, Mohammad Ali Jangda, Sang Y. Youn, Yafei Bi, Jean-Pierre Guillou, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20220375427
    Abstract: An electronic device may display image content via a tile-based display by controlling light emission from display pixels of the tile-based display. Based on image data associated with the image content, a processing circuitry of the tile-based display may receive a potential tile boundary. The processing circuitry may resample the image data based on geometry of the tile boundary and positions of the display pixels on the tile-based panel. After resampling the image data, the processing circuitry may adjust gain of the tile boundary display pixels according to a gain mask to compensate for the tile boundary.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 6, 2022
    Publication date: November 24, 2022
    Inventors: Hari P Paudel, Chaohao Wang, Hopil Bae, Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi, Wei Chen, Wei H Yao, Seung B Rim, Sunmin Jang
  • Publication number: 20220358867
    Abstract: An electronic device may display image content via an electronic display by controlling light emission from display pixels of the electronic display. A processor of the electronic device may receive image data destined for a defective display pixel (e.g., dim pixel, dead pixel). The processor may convert a gray level of the image data into a luminance domain to generate a target luminance that would have been emitted by the defective display pixel had the display pixel not been defective. After selecting a compensation mask, the processor may distribute the target luminance of the defective display pixels to nearby non-defective pixels of the electronic display to conceal the presence of the defective display pixel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 6, 2022
    Publication date: November 10, 2022
    Inventors: Hari P. Paudel, Chaohao Wang, Hopil Bae, Mahdi Farrokh Baroughi, Wei Chen, Wei H. Yao
  • Patent number: 11468809
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a variable refresh rate display. Static content may be displayed on the display at a lower refresh rate than moving content to conserve power. The display may include an array of pixels. Display driver circuitry in the display may load image data into rows of the pixels. The display driver circuitry may have digital-to-analog converter circuitry that supplies data signals to the array. The display driver circuitry may respond to a variable refresh rate control signal that is asserted and deasserted depending on whether static or moving image content is to be displayed. The display driver circuitry may use the digital-to-analog converter circuitry to apply a time-varying scaling factor to the image data. The magnitude of the scaling factor may be adjusted during transitions between refresh rates to help suppress luminance variations that might otherwise result in flickering on the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Hyunwoo Nho, Wei Chen, Wei H Yao, Yafei Bi
  • Publication number: 20220285577
    Abstract: Methods and structures are described to facilitate the transfer of device layer coupons with controlled vertical position. In an embodiment, a plurality of device layer coupons is bonded to a receiving substrate with an adhesive layer, where distance between front surfaces of the plurality of device layer coupons and a bulk layer of the receiving substrate is controlled by a plurality of rigid mechanical spacers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2022
    Publication date: September 8, 2022
    Inventors: Lei Zhang, Fang Ou, Lina He, Paul S. Drzaic, Dmitry S. Sizov, Ranojoy Bose, Yuewei Zhang, Xiaobin Xin, Nathaniel T. Lawrence, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20220270569
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display with an array of pixels. The device may have an array of components such as an array of light sensors for capturing fingerprints of a user through an array of corresponding transparent windows in the display. A capacitive touch sensor, proximity sensor, force sensor, or other sensor may be used by control circuitry in the device to monitor for the presence of a user's finger over the array of light sensors. In response, the control circuitry can direct the display to illuminate a subset of the pixels, thereby illuminating the user's finger and causing reflected light from the finger to illuminate the array of light sensors for a fingerprint capture operation. The display may have display driver circuitry that facilitates the momentary illumination of the subset of pixels with uniform flash data while image data is displayed in other portions of the display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 10, 2022
    Publication date: August 25, 2022
    Inventors: Koorosh Aflatooni, Minhyuk Choi, Mohammad Ali Jangda, Sang Y. Youn, Yafei Bi, Jean-Pierre Guillou, Wei H. Yao
  • Patent number: 11348554
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display. A protective display cover layer for the display may tend to dim pixels near the edge of the display. Control circuitry in the electronic device may boost luminance for pixels in an edge region of a displayed image relative to a center region of the image. This ensures that image brightness does not vary across the image. The control circuitry may include a graphics processing unit, a pixel pipeline implemented in a system-on-chip circuit block, and a display drive circuit block. Luminance compensation may be implemented in the system-on-chip block and/or in the display driver circuit block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yingying Tang, Chaohao Wang, Wei H. Yao
  • Patent number: 11348555
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a display with an array of pixels. The device may have an array of components such as an array of light sensors for capturing fingerprints of a user through an array of corresponding transparent windows in the display. A capacitive touch sensor, proximity sensor, force sensor, or other sensor may be used by control circuitry in the device to monitor for the presence of a user's finger over the array of light sensors. In response, the control circuitry can direct the display to illuminate a subset of the pixels, thereby illuminating the user's finger and causing reflected light from the finger to illuminate the array of light sensors for a fingerprint capture operation. The display may have display driver circuitry that facilitates the momentary illumination of the subset of pixels with uniform flash data while image data is displayed in other portions of the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Koorosh Aflatooni, Minhyuk Choi, Mohammad Ali Jangda, Sang Y. Youn, Yafei Bi, Jean-Pierre Guillou, Wei H. Yao
  • Patent number: 11295703
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with an ambient light sensor, a display that displays image content, and control circuitry. The control circuitry may adjust a peak allowable brightness of the display based on an ambient light brightness and based on the image content being displayed. For example, the control circuitry may analyze frames of display data to determine an average pixel luminance level. Low average pixel luminance levels correspond to mostly dark image content, whereas high average pixel luminance levels correspond to mostly light image content. When an electronic device is outdoors and displaying mostly dark images with low average pixel luminance levels, the control circuitry may take advantage of the display's maximum achievable brightness to improve readability. When an electronic device is outdoors and displaying mostly light images with high average pixel luminance levels, the control circuitry may scale the maximum allowable brightness down to reduce power consumption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Yang Li, Yingying Tang, Chaohao Wang, Wei H. Yao