The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 63 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. on Tuesday. In this particular report we briefly cover MacBooks with Zero Border display design; climate control for a future autonomous Apple vehicle; weaving equipment for manufacturing smart fabrics; another folded camera lens invention (periscope design) and more. And as always, we wrap up this week’s granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.
MacBook with Zero Border Display
In 2020 Patently Apple posted a design patent report for a MacBook with a zero border display that was issued by the Hong Kong Patent Office. At the time there were a few nay-sayers saying that was never going to happen – and it may never. However, Apple was granted the design patent for it, which is undeniable, and yesterday Apple was granted a utility patent titled “Hybrid architecture for zero border display.” Below are two of the design patent images of a MacBook with a zero border display.
Apple states in their granted patent that embodiments describe hybrid architectures and method methods of operating a display panel in which row function circuitry and pixel driving function circuitry are combined in a backbone of hybrid pixel driver chips. In this manner total silicon chip area can be reduced with elimination of specified row driver chips. In addition, the arrangement facilitates the fabrication of tile-based display panel arrangements with configurable sizes and shapes, and reduced borders, or zero borders, where areas traditionally reserved for driver ledges may be omitted.
If you’re interested in diving into this highly technical patent, then check out patent 11,341,893 here.
Computer Tower Architecture and Thermal Management
Continued advances in electronic devices and their components have enabled considerable increases in performance. Existing components and structures for electronic devices can, however, limit the levels of performance of such devices.
Apple’s granted patent covers an air-moving system that can include a first air-moving apparatus that produces the positive air pressure in the first volume by moving air into the first volume from an ambient environment, and a second air-moving apparatus that produces the negative air pressure in the second volume by moving air into the ambient environment from the second volume. The air-moving system moves air between the first volume and the second volume through the aperture.
Apple’s patent FIG. 11 illustrates an exploded top perspective view of the Mac Pro.
Apple’s patent FIG. 20 above illustrates a side view of the interior of an electronic device including arrows illustrating airflow; FIG. 21 illustrates a side view of the interior of the electronic device of FIG. 20 including arrows illustrating airflow. For more details, review granted patent 11,343,931.
Project Titan: Vehicle Thermal System
Apple’s granted patent covers thermal management systems and methods for operating thermal management systems that allow independent thermal management and control of a plurality of vehicle subsystems using a common heat and cold generating powerplant using an electric or fuel powered refrigerant cycle, such as a CO2-based R744 refrigerant cycle.
In addition, heat management between subsystems is provided through direct mixing of subsystem liquid coolant streams to utilize waste heat from one system to add heat to another system as needed. Direct mixing of liquid coolant streams allows the transfer of waste heat without heat exchanger components between subsystems and offers the best possible theoretical heat transfer exchange between the subsystems.
Glycol-water coolant (or another similar type of liquid coolant), is utilized as the primary heat transfer media due to its low freezing point compared to pure water, high heat capacity compared to air, and its ability to be routed to the locations where heat needs to be extracted or applied.
Apple’s patent FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram that shows components of a vehicle thermal system.
For greater detail, review Apple’s granted patent 11,338,647.
Other mildly interesting granted patents issued yesterday include:
11,339,510 titled “Weaving equipment with strand modifying unit.” This is Apple’s second granted patent for this invention. In this patent, Apple added a few new things such as a “first metal terminal” and an electrical component that “comprises a sensor.”
11,340,388 titled “Power prism for folded lenses.” In some folded lens systems, a prism with refractive power (referred to as a power prism) may be used. For example, in some camera designs, a folded lens system may require a lens on the object side of the first prism. Instead of using a separate lens on the object side of the prism, a power prism composed of a prism and a lens deposited on or attached to the object side surface of the prism may be used. An advantage of the power prism is that the convex object side surface of the lens can be positioned closer to the surface of the prism than can be done using a separate lens, thus reducing Z-height of the folded lens system.
The Remaining Patents Granted to Apple Today
