Color ambient light sensor with tunable filter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10670786-B2
Application number	US-201815953281-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 13, 2018
Priority date	Apr 13, 2018
Publication date	Jun 2, 2020
Grant date	Jun 2, 2020

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with a color ambient light sensor. The color ambient light sensor may be used to measure an ambient light spectrum over a wavelength range of interest. Control circuitry in the electronic device can take actions based on the measured ambient light spectrum such as adjusting the brightness and color cast of content on a display. A display may have a display cover layer. The color ambient light sensor can be mounted under the display cover layer and may receive ambient light through the display cover layer. The color ambient light sensor may have a tunable wavelength filter such as an electrically adjustable Fabry-Perot resonator. A light collimator may be interposed between the display cover layer and the Fabry-Perot resonator to collimate ambient light that is passed to the Fabry-Perot resonator. A light detector measures the light passing through the Fabry-Perot resonator.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic device, comprising:
a housing;
a display in the housing;
a color ambient light sensor having a tunable filter and having a photodiode that is configured to receive ambient light passing through the tunable filter; and
control circuitry in the housing that is configured to:
measure an ambient light spectrum for the ambient light by measuring signals from the photodiode while sweeping a passband of the tunable filter across a visible light spectrum; and
adjust content on the display based on the measured ambient light spectrum.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the tunable filter is an electrically adjustable Fabry-Perot resonator and wherein the control circuitry is configured to measure the ambient light spectrum by adjusting the Fabry-Perot resonator to sweep the passband over a wavelength range between a first wavelength and a second wavelength.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the control circuitry includes an analog-to-digital converter configured to digitize signals from the photodiode.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the photodiode and the analog-to-digital converter are formed in a semiconductor substrate.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 4 wherein the Fabry-Perot resonator has at least one metal electrode formed on the semiconductor substrate.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the Fabry-Perot resonator is a microelectromechanical systems device with metal mirrors separated by an air gap.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 6 further comprising an infrared-light-blocking thin-film interference filter on one of the metal mirrors.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising a light collimator configured to collimate the ambient light and before the ambient light passes through the tunable filter.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 8 wherein the light collimator has first and second layers with prism structures.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the prism structures of the first layer comprise parallel prism-shaped ridges that run along a first direction and wherein the prism structures of the second layer comprise parallel prism-shaped ridges that run along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction.

11. The electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the display is covered by a display cover layer, the electronic device further comprising:
a light diffuser layer interposed between the display cover layer and the first layer.

12. The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising a display cover layer overlapping the display, wherein the ambient light passes through the display cover layer before passing through the tunable filter.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the control circuitry is configured to adjust a color cast of the content based on the measured ambient light spectrum.

14. A color ambient light sensor, comprising:
a semiconductor substrate;
a photodiode on the semiconductor substrate;
analog-to-digital converter circuitry in the semiconductor substrate that is configured to digitize signals from the photodiode; and
a tunable light filter overlapping the photodiode and having a passband that is adjustable across a visible light spectrum.

15. The color ambient light sensor defined in claim 14 wherein the tunable light filter comprises an electrically adjustable Fabry-Perot resonator formed from a microelectromechanical systems device.

16. The color ambient light sensor defined in claim 15 further comprising a light collimator that is configured to collimate ambient light and provide the collimated ambient light to the photodiode through the Fabry-Perot resonator.

17. The color ambient light sensor defined in claim 16 further comprising an infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting thin-film interference filter that overlaps the photodiode.

18. An electronic device, comprising:
a display configured to display an image;
a light collimator configured to receive ambient light;
an adjustable filter that receives the ambient light from the light collimator;
a light detector configured to measure a color of the ambient light;
an infrared-light-blocking-and-visible-light-transmitting filter interposed between the adjustable filter and the light detector; and
control circuitry configured to adjust a color cast of the image on the display based on signals from the light detector so that the color cast of the image more closely matches the color of ambient light.

19. The electronic device defined in claim 18 wherein the adjustable filter comprises an electrically adjustable Fabry-Perot resonator and wherein the control circuitry is configured to sweep a passband associated with the Fabry-Perot resonator over a wavelength range that includes visible light wavelengths while measuring the signals from the light detector to measure an ambient light spectrum for the ambient light.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Zheng Dong
• Lyngnes Ove
• Holenarsipur Prashanth S
• Isikman Serhan O
• Sun Tianbo
• Xu Tingjun
• Zhao Xianwei
• Cai Xingxing

Classifications

• G09G2320/0626

  for control of overall brightness · CPC title

• H01L31/02165

  Electricity · mapped topic

• G09G2360/144

  the light being ambient light · CPC title

• G02B27/30

  Collimators · CPC title

• H01L31/02019

  Electricity · mapped topic