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AppleGranted patentPhones & computersInterest 4/10

Apple patents display design that shrinks the border around camera holes

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

Apple describes a method for making screens with smaller, less noticeable cutouts for cameras or sensors. The design merges electrical wires before they route around the hole to reduce crowding and uses a tapered shape to maximize the usable screen area.

Why it mattersThis technical improvement could lead to slightly larger screens or more flexible placement of front-facing sensors in future devices.

In the filing’s own words

An electronic device may include a display having display pixels formed in an active area of the display. The display further includes display driver circuitry for driving gate lines that are routed across the display. A hole such as a through hole, optical window, or other inactive region may be formed within the active area of the display. Multiple gate lines carrying the same signal may be merged together prior to being routed around the hole to help minimize the routing line congestion around the border of the hole. Dummy circuits may be coupled to the merged segment portion to help increase the parasitic loading on the merged segments. The hole may have a tapered shape to help maximize the size of the active area. The hole may have an asymmetric shape to accommodate multiple sub-display sensor components.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. Display circuitry comprising: a substrate; an encapsulation layer over the substrate; thin-film transistor routing layers between the substrate and the encapsulation layer; first and second lines of display pixels formed in an active area and formed in the thin-film transistor routing layers; an inactive region within the active area and comprising an optical window formed from a portion of the substrate, formed between first and second opposing portions of the thin-film transistor routing layers, and formed from a portion of the encapsulation layer, wherein the portion of the substrate and the portion of the encapsulation layer is configured to pass optical signals; a first routing segment coupled to the first line of display pixels and formed in the first portion of the thin-film transistor routing layers; a second routing segment coupled to the second line of display pixels and formed in the first portion of the thin-film transistor routing layers; a merged segment into which the first and second routing segments are merged, wherein the merged segment is routed around the portion of the encapsulation layer forming the optical window from the first portion of the thin-film transistor routing layers to the second portion of the thin-film transistor routing layers and wherein the merged segment overlaps the active area; and display driver circuitry coupled to the first and second routing segments.

Facts

Company
Apple (Apple Inc.)
Official title
Reducing border width around a hole in display active area
Patent number
US12755688B2
Application number
18449611
Filed
Aug 14, 2023
Granted
Oct 6, 2026
Inventors
7
Claims
20

Classified under

G09G 3/3225 Physics & computingG06F 3/0412 Physics & computingH10K 59/131 Electricity & electronicsH10K 59/65 Electricity & electronicsH10K 77/10 Electricity & electronics
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.