Electronic devices having displays with openings

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10546901-B2
Application number	US-201816203410-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 28, 2018
Priority date	Oct 14, 2011
Publication date	Jan 28, 2020
Grant date	Jan 28, 2020

Abstract

An electronic device may have a display. The display may have an active region in which display pixels are used to display images. The display may have one or more openings and may be mounted in a housing associated with the electronic device. An electronic component may be mounted in alignment with the openings in the display. The electronic component may include a camera, a light sensor, a light-based proximity sensor, status indicator lights, a light-based touch sensor array, a secondary display that has display pixels that may be viewed through the openings, antenna structures, a speaker, a microphone, or other acoustic, electromagnetic, or light-based component. One or more openings in the display may form a window through which a user of the device may view an external object. Display pixels in the window region may be used in forming a heads-up display.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device, comprising:
a housing;
a display mounted in the housing, wherein the display has an active area, an inactive area, and at least first and second pixels in the active area;
a light source that illuminates a user's finger on the display; and
a light sensor located behind the display, wherein the light sensor receives light that reflects off of the user's finger and passes between the first and second pixels in the active area.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the light source comprises a light-emitting diode.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the first and second pixels comprise organic light-emitting diode pixels.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the light sensor comprises a silicon photodiode.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the light sensor comprises a two-dimensional array of light detectors.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the display comprises a polymer substrate on which the first and second pixels are located.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the polymer substrate comprises first and second opposing surfaces and wherein the polymer substrate comprises an opening that passes from the first surface to the second surface.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 7 wherein display comprises a layer of thin-film transistor circuitry, a layer of organic emissive material, and a layer of sealant, and wherein the opening passes through the layer of thin-film transistor circuitry, the layer of organic emissive material, and the layer of sealant.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 7 wherein the light sensor is aligned with the opening and receives the light through the opening.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising:
control circuitry that controls the display based at least partly on data from the light sensor.

11. An electronic device, comprising:
a polymer substrate;
an array of pixels on the polymer substrate;
a light source that illuminates a user's finger; and
an array of light detectors behind the polymer substrate, wherein the light detectors detect light that reflects off of the user's finger and wherein the array of pixels comprises organic light-emitting diode pixels.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 11 wherein the light detectors comprise semiconductor photodiodes.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 11 wherein the light source comprises an array of light-emitting diodes.

14. The electronic device defined in claim 11 wherein the light that reflects off of the user's finger passes between the pixels in the array of pixels to reach the array of light detectors behind the polymer substrate.

15. An electronic device, comprising:
a housing;
a display mounted in the housing;
an array of photodiodes behind the display, wherein the array of photodiodes detect light that reflects off of a user's finger and passes through the display; and
control circuitry that controls the display based at least partly on data from the array of photodiodes.

16. The electronic device defined in claim 15 further comprising a light source that illuminates the user's finger.

17. The electronic device defined in claim 16 wherein the light source comprises a light-emitting diode.

18. The electronic device defined in claim 15 wherein the display comprises a substrate and an array of organic light-emitting diode pixels on the substrate.

19. The electronic device defined in claim 18 wherein the light detected by the array of photodiodes passes through the display between the organic light-emitting diode pixels.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Rappoport Benjamin M
• Franklin Jeremy C
• Rothkopf Fletcher R
• Myers Scott A
• Howarth Richard P
• Hoenig Julian
• Stringer Christopher J
• Ternus John P
• Lynch Stephen Brian

Classifications

• G06F1/1637

  Details related to the display arrangement, including those related to the mounting of the display in the housing · CPC title

• G02B27/01

  Head-up displays · CPC title

• G06F1/169

  the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes (G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033) · CPC title

• G02B2027/014

  comprising information/image processing systems · CPC title

• G06F1/1686

  the I/O peripheral being an integrated camera · CPC title