Patents by Inventor Wenyong Zhu

Wenyong Zhu 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: 20200049864
    Abstract: A privacy film may have a light-blocking layer that is interposed between first and second transparent substrates. The light-blocking layer may have a plurality of opaque portions and a plurality of transparent portions. The opaque portions may be shaped to ensure light from the display is directed only to the primary viewer of the display. Each opaque portion of the light-blocking layer may extend along a respective longitudinal axis between the first and second transparent substrates. Privacy films used to cover curved displays may have opaque portions that extend along longitudinal axes that have different angles relative to the transparent substrates. Opaque portions in the edge of the privacy film may have longitudinal axes that are at non-perpendicular angles with respect to the transparent substrates. A privacy film for a curved display may also include a light-redirecting layer such as a prism layer or a liquid crystal layer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2019
    Publication date: February 13, 2020
    Inventors: Yi Huang, Steven M. Scardato, ByoungSuk Kim, Jun Qi, Victor H. Yin, Wenyong Zhu
  • Patent number: 10488705
    Abstract: A display may have a backlight unit that provides backlight illumination. The backlight unit may include a light guide that distributes light through the display. Light-emitting diodes may emit light into the light guide. A reflector that is overlapped by the light guide may help reflect light upwards through an array of pixels. The backlight unit may have a chassis that receives the reflector, light guide, light-emitting diodes, and optical films such as diffusers and prism films. Optical and mechanical features in the backlight unit may enhance color and intensity uniformity for the backlight illumination and may help enhance durability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Daming Xu, Heesang Suh, Mookyung Son, Wenyong Zhu, Victor H. Yin
  • Patent number: 10483493
    Abstract: An organic light-emitting diode display may have an array of pixels formed from a layer of thin-film circuitry. The thin-film circuitry may be formed on a glass layer that serves as an inner layer of encapsulation for the array of pixels formed from the thin-film circuitry. A thin-film encapsulation layer may overlap the array of pixels and may serve as an opposing outer layer of encapsulation for the array of pixels formed by the thin-film circuitry. An electronic device may have opposing front and rear faces. The display may be mounted in a housing on the front face. The housing may have a planar rear wall on the rear face. A display cover layer associated with the display may overlap the pixel array. A touch sensor and optical layers such as a circular polarizer layer and a compensation layer may be interposed between the display cover layer and the thin-film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel B. Sargent, John Raff, Li Zhang, Victor H. Yin, Wenyong Zhu
  • Publication number: 20190285944
    Abstract: A display may have a pixel array such as a liquid crystal pixel array. The pixel array may be illuminated with backlight illumination from a backlight unit. The backlight unit may include a printed circuit board, a plurality of light-emitting diodes mounted on the printed circuit board, at least one light spreading layer formed over the printed circuit board that spreads light received from the plurality of light-emitting diodes, a partially reflective layer formed over the at least one light spreading layer, a color conversion layer formed over the partially reflective layer, a collimating layer formed over the color conversion layer, a brightness enhancement film formed over the collimating layer, and a diffuser formed over the brightness enhancement film. The at least one light spreading layer may include two light spreading layers with elongated protrusions that are rotated relative to each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2019
    Publication date: September 19, 2019
    Inventors: Rong Liu, Jun Qi, Victor H. Yin, Wei Lv, Joshua A. Spechler, Yu P. Sun, Suraj P. Gorkhali, Daming Xu, Edward H. Kang, Wenyong Zhu, Ziruo Hong, Xinyu Zhu, Ling Han, Mookyung Son, Pee Khiam So, Janos C. Keresztes, Chenhua You, Zhenyue Luo, Heesang Suh, Juan He, Hung Sheng Lin
  • Publication number: 20190285942
    Abstract: A display may have a pixel array such as a liquid crystal pixel array. The pixel array may be illuminated with backlight illumination from a backlight unit. The backlight unit may include a printed circuit board, a plurality of light-emitting diodes mounted on the printed circuit board, at least one light spreading layer formed over the printed circuit board that spreads light received from the plurality of light-emitting diodes, a partially reflective layer formed over the at least one light spreading layer, a color conversion layer formed over the partially reflective layer, a collimating layer formed over the color conversion layer, a brightness enhancement film formed over the collimating layer, and a diffuser formed over the brightness enhancement film. The at least one light spreading layer may include two light spreading layers with elongated protrusions that are rotated relative to each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2019
    Publication date: September 19, 2019
    Inventors: Rong Liu, Edward H Kang, Jun Qi, Mookyung Son, Pee Khaim So, Victor H. Yin, Wei Lv, Wenyong Zhu, Zhenyue Luo, Xinyu Zhu, Ling Han, Hung Sheng Lin
  • Publication number: 20190044093
    Abstract: An organic light-emitting diode display may have an array of pixels formed from a layer of thin-film circuitry. The thin-film circuitry may be formed on a glass layer that serves as an inner layer of encapsulation for the array of pixels formed from the thin-film circuitry. A thin-film encapsulation layer may overlap the array of pixels and may serve as an opposing outer layer of encapsulation for the array of pixels formed by the thin-film circuitry. An electronic device may have opposing front and rear faces. The display may be mounted in a housing on the front face. The housing may have a planar rear wall on the rear face. A display cover layer associated with the display may overlap the pixel array. A touch sensor and optical layers such as a circular polarizer layer and a compensation layer may be interposed between the display cover layer and the thin-film.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 8, 2018
    Publication date: February 7, 2019
    Inventors: Daniel B. Sargent, John Raff, Li Zhang, Victor H. Yin, Wenyong Zhu
  • Publication number: 20180307100
    Abstract: A display may have a backlight unit that provides backlight illumination. The backlight unit may include a light guide that distributes light through the display. Light-emitting diodes may emit light into the light guide. A reflector that is overlapped by the light guide may help reflect light upwards through an array of pixels. The backlight unit may have a chassis that receives the reflector, light guide, light-emitting diodes, and optical films such as diffusers and prism films. Optical and mechanical features in the backlight unit may enhance color and intensity uniformity for the backlight illumination and may help enhance durability.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 8, 2018
    Publication date: October 25, 2018
    Inventors: Daming Xu, Heesang Suh, Mookyung Son, Wenyong Zhu, Victor H. Yin
  • Publication number: 20180307102
    Abstract: A display may have a backlight unit that provides backlight illumination. The backlight unit may include a light guide that distributes light through the display. Light-emitting diodes may emit light into the light guide. A reflector that is overlapped by the light guide may help reflect light upwards through an array of pixels. The backlight unit may have a chassis that receives the reflector, light guide, light-emitting diodes, and optical films such as diffusers and prism films. Optical and mechanical features in the backlight unit may enhance color and intensity uniformity for the backlight illumination and may help enhance durability.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2017
    Publication date: October 25, 2018
    Inventors: Byungsoo Ko, Daming Xu, Heesang Suh, Michael Tom, Shin-Ying Lu, Thomas Mueller, Wenyong Zhu, Victor H. Yin, Mookyung Son
  • Patent number: 9361609
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a liquid crystal display with backlight structures. The backlight structures may produce backlight that passes through the display layers in the display. The display layers may include a layer of liquid crystal material interposed between a color filter layer and a thin-film transistor layer. The backlight structures may include a light guide plate. A plurality of light-emitting diodes mounted on a flexible printed circuit may be coupled to an edge of the light guide plate. The flexible printed circuit may be curled into a spring element to bias the light-emitting diodes against the edge of the light guide plate. A plurality of gaps may be formed in the flexible printed circuit and may be used to separate and mechanically decouple adjacent light-emitting diodes. Individual light-emitting diodes may independently register to the light guide plate to maximize optical efficiency in the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2016
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jeremy C. Franklin, Derek W. Wright, Wenyong Zhu
  • Patent number: 9140925
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with a display such as a liquid crystal display having upper and lower polarizer layers, a color filter layer, a liquid crystal layer, and a thin-film transistor layer. The display may have backlight structures that include a light guide plate, a reflector, and optical films. An opaque masking layer may be formed in a strip that runs along a peripheral edge of the lower polarizer in the display. The lower polarizer and the optical films may be separated by an air gap. The uppermost optical film may be a brightness enhancing film. The lower polarizer may be a matte polarizer layer, a polarizer film attached to an achromatic polarizing compensating film, or a matte polarizer that is attached to an achromatic polarizing compensating film coated with a matte coating.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2015
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jun Qi, Victor H. Yin, Wenyong Zhu, Wei Chen
  • Publication number: 20150049285
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with a display. The display may include display layers characterized by an active area and backlight structures that provide backlight to the active area. To accommodate components such as a button, an edge portion of a light guide plate in the backlight structures that does not overlap the active area is bent out of the plane of the light guide plate. The bent edge portion of the light guide plate may be formed by molding clear plastic in a die or by bending a flexible sheet of clear polymer. Flared structures may be formed on the flexible sheet of clear polymer to help guide light from light-emitting diodes into the flexible sheet of clear polymer. The flared structures may be formed by applying resin coating layers to the flexible sheet of clear polymer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2013
    Publication date: February 19, 2015
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Amy Qian, Jeremy C. Franklin, John Raff, Victor H. Yin, Wenyong Zhu
  • Publication number: 20140211505
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a liquid crystal display with backlight structures. The backlight structures may produce backlight that passes through the display layers in the display. The display layers may include a layer of liquid crystal material interposed between a color filter layer and a thin-film transistor layer. The backlight structures may include a light guide plate. A plurality of light-emitting diodes mounted on a flexible printed circuit may be coupled to an edge of the light guide plate. The flexible printed circuit may be curled into a spring element to bias the light-emitting diodes against the edge of the light guide plate. A plurality of gaps may be formed in the flexible printed circuit and may be used to separate and mechanically decouple adjacent light-emitting diodes. Individual light-emitting diodes may independently register to the light guide plate to maximize optical efficiency in the display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2014
    Publication date: July 31, 2014
    Applicant: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jeremy C. Franklin, Derek W. Wright, Wenyong Zhu
  • Patent number: 8690412
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a liquid crystal display with backlight structures. The backlight structures may produce backlight that passes through the display layers in the display. The display layers may include a layer of liquid crystal material interposed between a color filter layer and a thin-film transistor layer. The backlight structures may include a light guide plate. A plurality of light-emitting diodes mounted on a flexible printed circuit may be coupled to an edge of the light guide plate. The flexible printed circuit may be curled into a spring element to bias the light-emitting diodes against the edge of the light guide plate. A plurality of gaps may be formed in the flexible printed circuit and may be used to separate and mechanically decouple adjacent light-emitting diodes. Individual light-emitting diodes may independently register to the light guide plate to maximize optical efficiency in the display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2014
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Jeremy C. Franklin, Derek Wright, Wenyong Zhu
  • Publication number: 20140055719
    Abstract: An electronic device may be provided with a display such as a liquid crystal display having upper and lower polarizer layers, a color filter layer, a liquid crystal layer, and a thin-film transistor layer. The display may have backlight structures that include a light guide plate, a reflector, and optical films. An opaque masking layer may be formed in a strip that runs along a peripheral edge of the lower polarizer in the display. The lower polarizer and the optical films may be separated by an air gap. The uppermost optical film may be a brightness enhancing film. The lower polarizer may be a matte polarizer layer, a polarizer film attached to an achromatic polarizing compensating film, or a matte polarizer that is attached to an achromatic polarizing compensating film coated with a matte coating.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2012
    Publication date: February 27, 2014
    Inventors: Jun Qi, Victor H. Yin, Wenyong Zhu, Wei Chen
  • Publication number: 20130242600
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a liquid crystal display with backlight structures. The backlight structures may produce backlight that passes through the display layers in the display. The display layers may include a layer of liquid crystal material interposed between a color filter layer and a thin-film transistor layer. The backlight structures may include a light guide plate. A plurality of light-emitting diodes mounted on a flexible printed circuit may be coupled to an edge of the light guide plate. The flexible printed circuit may be curled into a spring element to bias the light-emitting diodes against the edge of the light guide plate. A plurality of gaps may be formed in the flexible printed circuit and may be used to separate and mechanically decouple adjacent light-emitting diodes. Individual light-emitting diodes may independently register to the light guide plate to maximize optical efficiency in the display.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2012
    Publication date: September 19, 2013
    Inventors: Jeremy C. Franklin, Derek Wright, Wenyong Zhu
  • Patent number: 8508694
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a liquid crystal display with backlight structures. The backlight structures may produce backlight that passes through display layers in the display. The display layers may include color filter elements, a liquid crystal layer, and a thin-film transistor layer. The backlight structures may have a light guide plate with opposing first and second edges. The light guide plate and other display layers may be assembled within support structures such as a metal chassis and a plastic chassis. A first strip of light-emitting diodes may be attached to the first edge of the light guide plate in a position that is floating with respect to the metal chassis. A second strip of light-emitting diodes may be attached to the second edge of the light guide plate in a position that is fixed with respect to the metal chassis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Wenyong Zhu
  • Publication number: 20130148058
    Abstract: An electronic device may have a liquid crystal display with backlight structures. The backlight structures may produce backlight that passes through display layers in the display. The display layers may include color filter elements, a liquid crystal layer, and a thin-film transistor layer. The backlight structures may have a light guide plate with opposing first and second edges. The light guide plate and other display layers may be assembled within support structures such as a metal chassis and a plastic chassis. A first strip of light-emitting diodes may be attached to the first edge of the light guide plate in a position that is floating with respect to the metal chassis. A second strip of light-emitting diodes may be attached to the second edge of the light guide plate in a position that is fixed with respect to the metal chassis.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2011
    Publication date: June 13, 2013
    Inventor: Wenyong Zhu
  • Patent number: 8022615
    Abstract: A self emission device (644) that emits light (526). The self emission device can include at least one light emission layer (104) encompassing an area, and generating light over such area in a distributed fashion. The self emission device also can include a first electrode (113) interfacing with a first side (116) of the light emission layer and a second electrode (114) interfacing with a second side (117) of the light emission layer. The first electrode and the second electrode can provide energy used by the light emission layer to illuminate. The self emission device can be a component of a display (100) comprising a reflective display panel (102).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2011
    Assignee: Motorola Mobility, Inc.
    Inventors: XiaoPing Bai, Sen Yang, Wenyong Zhu
  • Publication number: 20090045722
    Abstract: A self emission device (644) that emits light (526). The self emission device can include at least one light emission layer (104) encompassing an area, and generating light over such area in a distributed fashion. The self emission device also can include a first electrode (113) interfacing with a first side (116) of the light emission layer and a second electrode (114) interfacing with a second side (117) of the light emission layer. The first electrode and the second electrode can provide energy used by the light emission layer to illuminate. The self emission device can be a component of a display (100) comprising a reflective display panel (102).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 14, 2007
    Publication date: February 19, 2009
    Applicant: MOTOROLA, INC.
    Inventors: XiaoPing Bai, Sen Yang, Wenyong Zhu
  • Patent number: 6487335
    Abstract: System and method for wavelength discrimination using a DWDM (N+1)-stage cascade tree structure with distributed filtering to provide acceptable optical isolation and acceptable flat-top wavelength response. Each channel has a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) that provides wavelength discrimination. The input channel includes an inverted Fabry-Perot etalon (FPE) filter or an inverted, non-symmetric MZI filter that helps provide a desired flat-top response. Each channel in a second stage has a selected conventional MZI filter, and each channel in a third stage has a selected FPE filter, to help provide the desired optical isolation. The number of output channels may be 32, 64 or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2000
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2002
    Assignee: Tera Fiberoptics, Inc.
    Inventors: Yawen Yang, Wenyong Zhu