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: 20130083457
    Abstract: Systems and methods for manufacturing a display panel or other patterned device using outer resistive trace(s) patterned on the display panel or other patterned device are provided. Such a system, for example, may include resistance detection circuitry, a grinder, and data processing circuitry. The resistance detection circuitry may detect a resistance of a resistive trace disposed around a display panel. The grinder may grind a first edge of the display panel such that at least part of the resistive trace is grinded away as the first edge of the display panel is grinded. The data processing circuitry may control the grinder to stop grinding the first edge of the display panel when the resistance of the at least one resistive trace increases to a particular resistance value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2011
    Publication date: April 4, 2013
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Joshua Grey Wurzel, Yafei Bi, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20130009899
    Abstract: An electronic device is disclosed. In some embodiments, the electronic device includes a liquid-crystal display (LCD) and a plurality of driver integrated circuits (ICs) coupled to the LCD. The driver ICs may be disposed near non-central locations along a side of the LCD, and in some embodiments, one of the driver ICs may be a master driver IC and the other driver IC or driver ICs may be slave driver ICs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2012
    Publication date: January 10, 2013
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Shawn R. Gettemy, Carlin J. Vieri, Yongman Lee, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20120319666
    Abstract: A method and system is disclosed for powering device sub-circuitry of an electronic device. The sub-circuitry may be used to provide control signals to a direct current switcher on a main system board, thus eliminating passive circuitry typically associated with the sub-circuitry. Furthermore, by actively generating the control signals for the direct current switcher, explicit timing control circuitry is not required to synchronize the transmitted power to the sub-circuitry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2012
    Publication date: December 20, 2012
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ahmad Al-Dahle, John Ching Yu Tam, Hugo Fiennes, Wei H. Yao
  • Patent number: 8325309
    Abstract: An electronic device is disclosed. In some embodiments, the electronic device includes a liquid-crystal display (LCD) and a plurality of driver integrated circuits (ICs) coupled to the LCD. The driver ICs may be disposed near non-central locations along a side of the LCD, and in some embodiments, one of the driver ICs may be a master driver IC and the other driver IC or driver ICs may be slave driver ICs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Shawn R. Gettemy, Carlin J. Vieri, Yongman Lee, Wei H. Yao
  • Patent number: 8212843
    Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system reduces power consumption by changing an intensity setting of a light source, which illuminates a display that is configured to display a video image, and scales brightness values for the video image based on a brightness metric associated with the video image. Then, the system calculates the error metric for the video image based on the scaled brightness values and the video image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ulrich T. Barnhoefer, Wei H. Yao, Wei Chen
  • Publication number: 20120113154
    Abstract: Present techniques involve methods and systems of inversion patterns for pixels in a display. Inversion techniques involve driving image signals having a first polarity to data lines of a pixel matrix during a first time period and driving image signals having an opposite polarity to the data lines during a second time period. In some embodiments, the pixels may be configured to have electrodes having only two finger electrodes, thus widening the distance between electrodes and decreasing the susceptibility for crosstalk between pixels. In some embodiments, horizontal cross-talk of electromagnetic fields between pixels may be further reduced by configuring the data line driving scheme such that voltage polarity is flipped for the pixels along every two, three, or more data line columns. Furthermore, a Z inversion pattern may be employed to reduce the occurrence of undesirable display artifacts.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2010
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Zhibing Ge, Yongman Lee, Shih Chang Chang, Cheng Chen, Hopil Bae, Ming Xu, Shawn Robert Gettemy, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20120002110
    Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system receives a video image, that when displayed, includes a picture portion, a non-picture portion, and a subtitle which is superimposed on at least a subset of the non-picture portion, where the non-picture portion has an initial brightness value. Then, the system scales the brightness of pixels corresponding to a remainder of the non-picture portion of the video image to have a new brightness value that is greater than the initial brightness value to reduce user-perceived changes in the video image associated with backlighting of a display that displays the video image, where the remainder of the non-picture portion excludes the subset of the non-picture portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2011
    Publication date: January 5, 2012
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ulrich T. Barnhoefer, Wei H. Yao, Wei Chen, Barry J. Corlett, Jean-Didier Allegrucci
  • Publication number: 20110298811
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices relating to directly bonding electrode pads of a flexible printed circuit (FPC) to electrode pads of a glass substrate are provided. In one example, such a system may include a glass substrate with electrode pads and an FPC with corresponding electrode pads. A joining edge of each electrode pad of the FPC may couple directly to a joining edge of a corresponding electrode pad of the glass substrate, without an intervening conductive adhesive layer or an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) layer, or a combination thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2010
    Publication date: December 8, 2011
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ahmad Al-Dahle, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20110298785
    Abstract: Systems and methods for preventing parasitic capacitances within liquid crystal displays are provided. A display panel according to an embodiment may include, for example, a pixel with a pixel electrode and a transistor coupled to a gate line. Additionally, the pixel may include a shielding conductor interposed between the pixel electrode and the gate line. The shielding conductor may shield the pixel electrode from a parasitic capacitance with the gate line by causing a parasitic capacitance to form between the gate line and the shielding conductor instead of between the gate line and the pixel electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2010
    Publication date: December 8, 2011
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ahmad Al-Dahle, Wei H. Yao
  • Patent number: 8035666
    Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system receives a video image, that when displayed, includes a picture portion, a non-picture portion, and a subtitle which is superimposed on at least a subset of the non-picture portion, where the non-picture portion has an initial brightness value. Then, the system scales the brightness of pixels corresponding to a remainder of the non-picture portion of the video image to have a new brightness value that is greater than the initial brightness value to reduce user-perceived changes in the video image associated with backlighting of a display that displays the video image, where the remainder of the non-picture portion excludes the subset of the non-picture portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2011
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ulrich T. Barnhoefer, Wei H. Yao, Wei Chen, Barry J. Corlett, Jean-Didier Allegrucci
  • Publication number: 20100225657
    Abstract: Embodiments of the electronic device include a display driver with the ability to receive image data in a streaming display mode or a frame-buffered display mode. In some embodiments, the electronic device may switch seamlessly between the two display modes based on which display mode will provide reduced power usage given the type and/or variability of the image data being received.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2009
    Publication date: September 9, 2010
    Inventors: Kapil V. Sakariya, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20100079509
    Abstract: A method and system is disclosed for minimizing parasitic losses associated with a liquid crystal display (LCD) of a device. A frame buffer may be used in conjunction with a driver circuitry integrated circuit. The frame buffer may store a set of display values for the LCD so that the display values corresponding to a plurality of frames may be transmitted together from a processor in a burst. Once the values are transmitted, the processor may idle or hibernate. Alternatively, only the changes to an image may be transmitted from the processor to the driver circuitry. The remaining pixel values may be drawn based on values previously stored in the frame buffer. Furthermore, the driver circuitry may be used to step up the received display rate values to a level that allows for inversion of the polarity of pixels in the LCD using frame inversion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2008
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Wei H. Yao, Shawn Robert Gettemy
  • Publication number: 20100079128
    Abstract: A method and system is disclosed for powering device sub-circuitry of an electronic device. The sub-circuitry may be used to provide control signals to a direct current switcher on a main system board, thus eliminating passive circuitry typically associated with the sub-circuitry. Furthermore, by actively generating the control signals for the direct current switcher, explicit timing control circuitry is not required to synchronize the transmitted power to the sub-circuitry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2009
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Ahmad Al-Dahle, John Ching Yu Tam, Hugo Fiennes, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20100073332
    Abstract: An electronic device is disclosed. In some embodiments, the electronic device includes a liquid-crystal display (LCD) and a plurality of driver integrated circuits (ICs) coupled to the LCD. The driver ICs may be disposed near non-central locations along a side of the LCD, and in some embodiments, one of the driver ICs may be a master driver IC and the other driver IC or driver ICs may be slave driver ICs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 23, 2008
    Publication date: March 25, 2010
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Shawn R. Gettemy, Carlin J. Vieri, Yongman Lee, Wei H. Yao
  • Publication number: 20090161020
    Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system may determine an intensity setting of the light source based on at least a portion of a video image, such as the portion of the transformed video image that includes spatially varying visual information in the video image. Moreover, the system may modify the video image so that a product of the intensity setting and a transmittance associated with the modified video image approximately equals a product of a previous intensity setting and a transmittance associated with the video image. For example, the modification may include scaling brightness values in the transformed video image. Next, the system may identify a region in the video image in which the scaling of the brightness values results in a visual artifact associated with reduced contrast. For example, the region may include a bright region surrounded by a darker region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Publication date: June 25, 2009
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ulrich T. Barnhoefer, Wei H. Yao, Wei Chen
  • Publication number: 20090002404
    Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system receives a sequence of video images and a brightness setting of a light source which is configured to illuminate a display that is configured to display the video images, where the sequence of video images includes video signals. Then, the system determines an intensity setting of the light source on an image-by-image basis for the sequence of video images, where the intensity of a given video image is based on the brightness setting and brightness information contained in the video signals associated with the given video image. Next, the system synchronizes the intensity setting of the light source with a current video image to be displayed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ulrich T. Barnhoefer, Wei H. Yao, Wei Chen, Barry J. Corlett
  • Publication number: 20090002564
    Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system receives a sequence of video images, and calculates brightness metrics associated with the video images in the sequence of video images. Then, the system determines an intensity setting of a light source, which illuminates a display that is configured to display the sequence of video images, and scales brightness values of a given video image in the sequence of video images based on a given brightness metric associated with the given video image. Next, the system changes the intensity setting and scaling the brightness values when there is a discontinuity in the brightness metrics between two adjacent video images in the sequence of video images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ulrich T. Barnhoefer, Wei H. Yao, Wei Chen
  • Publication number: 20090002403
    Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system calculates a brightness metric associated with a video image. Then, the system identifies a subset of the video image based on the brightness metric, where the subset of the video image includes spatially varying visual information in the video image. Next, the system determines the intensity setting of the light source based on a first portion of the brightness metric associated with the subset of the video image, where the light source is configured to illuminate a display that is configured to display the video image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ulrich T. Barnhoefer, Wei H. Yao, Wei Chen, Barry J. Corlett
  • Publication number: 20090002311
    Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system receives a video image, that when displayed, includes a picture portion and the non-picture portion, where the non-picture portion has a first brightness value. Then, the system scales the non-picture portion to have a second brightness value that is greater than the first brightness value to reduce user-perceived changes in the video image associated with backlighting of a display that displays the video image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ulrich T. Barnhoefer, Wei H. Yao, Wei Chen, Barry J. Corlett, Victor E. Alessi
  • Publication number: 20090002401
    Abstract: Embodiments of a system that includes one or more integrated circuits are described. During operation, the system receives a sequence of video images, where a given video image in the sequence, when displayed, includes a picture portion and the non-picture portion, and where the picture portion has a histogram of brightness values. Then, the system determines the intensity setting of the light source on an image-by-image basis based on the histogram, where the light source is configured to illuminate a display that is configured to display the sequence of video images. Next, the system selectively filters changes in the intensity setting of the light source, where the selective filtering is based on a magnitude of a given change in the intensity setting from a previous video image to a current video image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: APPLE INC.
    Inventors: Ulrich T. Barnhoefer, Wei H. Yao, Wei Chen, Barry J. Corlett