Electronic devices with light sensor waveguides

• US 10,694,607 B1
• Filed: 06/24/2019
• Issued: 06/23/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2019
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Xu, Tingjun, Shao, Guocheng, Yu, Lei, Lyngnes, Ove, Kang, Sunggu, Sun, Tianbo, Zhao, Xianwei, Fu, Xiaoyong, Cai, Xingxing
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thuy V
• Application Number:
  US16/450,813
• Time in Patent Office: 365 Days
• Field of Search: 315149, 362615, 362627, 362629, 362632
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/201 in the form of arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/28 Interference filters
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 5/285 comprising deposited thin solid films G02B5/281 - G02B5/289 take precedence; multilayered film filters for fibre optic multiplexing G02B6/29361
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/0035 provided on the surface of the light guide or in the bulk of it
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/0041 provided in the bulk of the light guide
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/4298 coupling with non-coherent light sources and/or radiation detectors, e.g. lamps, incandescent bulbs, scintillation chambers
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/144 the light being ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 45/22 using optical feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/11 by determining the brightness or colour temperature of ambient light
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

An electronic device may have a housing with a display. A transparent portion of the housing may serve as a display cover layer and may overlap an array of pixels in the display. The array of pixels may form an active area of the display for displaying images for a user. An ambient light sensor window may be formed in an inactive area of the display that does not overlap pixels. An ambient light sensor may be mounted in an interior region of the housing. A metal-coated light guide may have a first end aligned with the ambient light sensor window to receive ambient light from an exterior region surrounding the device and may have a second end at which the ambient light is provided to the ambient light sensor.

Claims

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing;

an ambient light sensor window;

an ambient light sensor in the housing; and

a light guide in the housing between the ambient light sensor window and the ambient light sensor, wherein the light guide has a core, a metal coating, and a dielectric layer between the metal coating and the core, and wherein the dielectric layer comprises a thin-film interference filter formed from a stack of multiple thin-film coatings.

2. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the stack of multiple thin-film coatings is configured to reflect light traveling through the core.

3. The electronic device defined in claim 2 wherein the metal coating comprises a metal coating layer selected from the group consisting of:

an aluminum coating layer, a silver coating layer, and a gold coating layer.

4. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the core comprises a core selected from the group consisting of:

a glass core and a polymer core, and wherein the stack of multiple thin-film coatings comprises an innermost layer on an exterior surface of the core that is formed from silicon oxide.

5. The electronic device defined in claim 3 wherein the metal coating layer is an aluminum coating layer and wherein the stack of multiple thin-film coating layers comprises an outermost layer adjacent to the aluminum coating layer that is formed from aluminum oxide.

6. The electronic device defined in claim 2 further comprising light-scattering structures in the core.

7. The electronic device defined in claim 1 further comprising an additional dielectric layer on an outer surface of the metal coating.

8. The electronic device defined in claim 7 further comprising a polymer coating on the additional dielectric layer.

9. The electronic device defined in claim 8 wherein the additional dielectric layer comprises an aluminum oxide layer and a silicon oxide layer.

10. The electronic device defined in claim 1 wherein the ambient light sensor comprises a color ambient light sensor that is configured to measure ambient light color and ambient light intensity.

11. The electronic device defined in claim 10 further comprising:

pixels that are configured to display an image; and

control circuitry configured to adjust image color and intensity for the image based on the measured ambient light color and ambient light intensity.

12. An electronic device comprising:

a transparent display cover layer;

a light guide having an entrance configured to receive ambient light that has passed through the display cover layer, wherein the light guide has a core and has coating layers including a metal coating layer, a first dielectric layer between the metal coating layer and the core, and a second dielectric layer on an exterior surface of the metal coating layer;

a color ambient light sensor configured to receive the ambient light after the ambient light has reflected from the coating layers while passing through the core;

pixels; and

control circuitry configured to adjust the pixels using a measurement from the color ambient light sensor.

13. The electronic device defined in claim 12 wherein the coating layers comprise a stack of multiple thin-film dielectric layers between the metal coating layer and the core.

14. The electronic device defined in claim 13 further comprising a polymer coating layer on the second dielectric layer.

15. The electronic device defined in claim 12 further comprising light-scattering structures embedded in the core.

16. An electronic device comprising:

a housing configured to separate an interior region from an exterior region surrounding the housing;

an optical component window in the housing;

a light guide having first and second ends, wherein the first end is aligned with the optical component window, wherein the light guide has a core with a metal coating, and wherein the light guide comprises multiple thin-film dielectric layers between the metal coating and the core; and

an optical component aligned with the second end.

17. The electronic device defined in claim 16 wherein the core has light-scattering structures, and wherein the optical component comprises an ambient light sensor.