The present invention relates to an electronic device, and more particularly to an electronic device with an ambient light sensor.
Currently, electronic devices with borderless full-screen appearance (such as smart phones, etc.) have become the main trend. In order to achieve the requirement of borderless full-screen, all components (such as an ambient light sensor, etc.) must be integrated and disposed below the screen. Under this condition, the sensors receive the ambient light and the light emitted by the screen simultaneously, and the ambient light detected by the sensors is interfered by the change of the image or the brightness on the screen, thereby making the electronic device unable to accurately adjust the screen brightness.
One of the technical problems to be solved in the present invention is that the ambient light detected by the sensor is interfered by the change of the image or the brightness on the screen of the electronic device.
To solve the technical problem described above, the present invention provides an electronic device including a display, a first optical sensor, a second optical sensor and a first circular polarizer. The display includes a first side and a second side opposite to the first side. The first optical sensor and the second optical sensor are disposed on the first side of the display. The first circular polarizer is disposed on the first side of the display. The first circular polarizer includes a first quarter waveplate, a first linear polarizer, a second quarter waveplate and a second linear polarizer. The first quarter waveplate is disposed between the display and the first optical sensor, and the first linear polarizer is disposed between the first quarter waveplate and the first optical sensor. The second quarter waveplate is disposed between the display and the second optical sensor, and the second linear polarizer is disposed between the second quarter waveplate and the second optical sensor.
In the present invention, the intensity of the ambient light can be accurately obtained and the interference of the light emitted by the display can be eliminated through the first circular polarizer and the dual channel sensor (such as the first optical sensor and the second optical sensor). For example, the ambient light sensors (such as the first optical sensor and the second optical sensor) in the electronic device can detect the change of the ambient light without being affected by the change of the image or the brightness of the display, and thus the electronic device can adjust the screen brightness more precisely.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
The present invention may be understood by reference to the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the drawings as described below. It is noted that, for purposes of illustrative clarity and being easily understood by the readers, various drawings of the present invention show a portion of the electronic device, and certain components in various drawings may not be drawn to scale. In addition, the number and dimension of each component shown in drawings are only illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
It should be understood that when a component or layer is referred to as being “on”, “disposed on” or “connected to” another component or layer, it may be directly on or directly connected to the other component or layer, or intervening components or layers may be presented (indirect condition). In contrast, when a component is referred to as being “directly on”, “directly disposed on” or “directly connected to” another component or layer, there are no intervening components or layers present.
A direction X and a direction Z are labeled in the following drawings. The direction Z may be perpendicular to the upper surface or the lower surface of the substrate 100 or the cover layer 112, the direction X may be parallel to the upper surface or the lower surface of the substrate 100 or the cover layer 112, and the direction Z may be perpendicular to the direction X. The spatial relationship of the structure can be described according to the direction X and the direction Z in the following drawings.
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The substrate 100 may include a rigid substrate, a flexible substrate or the combination of the above, but not limited herein. The material of the substrate 100 may include glass, quartz, metal, ceramic, organic polymer, combinations of the above or other suitable materials, but not limited herein. When the material of the substrate 100 is organic polymer, it may include polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyimide (PI), polycarbonate (PC) or combinations of the above, but not limited herein.
Various electronic components may be disposed on the substrate 100, such as integrated circuits (IC), thin film transistors, conductive pads, wires or combinations of the above, but not limited herein. In addition, insulating layers or protective layers may be disposed on the substrate 100. In order to make the drawings simpler or clearer, the electronic components or the insulating layers described above are omitted in the drawings of the present invention.
The display 102 may be disposed on the substrate 100, and the display 102 may include a self-luminous display panel or a non-self-luminous display panel, but not limited herein. For example, the display 102 may include an organic light emitting diode display panel, an inorganic light emitting diode display panel, a quantum dot display panel, a liquid crystal display panel, a cholesteric liquid crystal display panel, an electrophoretic display panel, etc. In the display 102 of this embodiment, an active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display panel is taken as an example, but not limited herein.
In addition, the electronic device 10 of this embodiment may include an encapsulation layer 110 disposed on the display 102. Therefore, the display 102 of this embodiment is disposed between the encapsulation layer 110 and the substrate 100, but not limited herein. The encapsulation layer 110 may include organic or inorganic insulating materials, and the encapsulation layer 110 may be transparent, but not limited herein.
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The circular polarizer 106 may include a quarter waveplate 1061 (also referred to as a third quarter waveplate) and a linear polarizer 1063 (also referred to as a third linear polarizer). The linear polarizer 1063 is disposed on the quarter waveplate 1061, and the quarter waveplate 1061 is disposed between the linear polarizer 1063 and the display 102.
The circular polarizer 104 may include one or more quarter waveplates 1141 (also referred to as “first quarter waveplate”), one or more linear polarizers 1143 (also referred to as “first linear polarizer”), one or more quarter waveplates 1161 (also referred to as “second quarter waveplate”) and one or more linear polarizers 1163 (also referred to as “second linear polarizer”). The quarter waveplate 1141 is disposed on the linear polarizer 1143, and the quarter waveplate 1161 is disposed on the linear polarizer 1163. Therefore, as shown in
The quarter waveplate 1061, the quarter waveplate 1141 or the quarter waveplate 1161 may be a light transmitting layer constructed by optical anisotropic lattice materials or anisotropic sub-wavelength structures, but not limited herein. The linear polarizer 1063, the linear polarizer 1143 or the linear polarizer 1163 may be constructed by polymer materials or metal wire grids, but not limited herein. The quarter waveplate 1141 has an optical axis, the linear polarizer 1143 has a polarization direction, and an included angle between the optical axis of the quarter waveplate 1141 and the polarization direction of the linear polarizer 1143 is −45 degrees. On the other hand, the quarter waveplate 1161 has an optical axis, the linear polarizer 1163 has a polarization direction, and an included angle between the optical axis of the quarter waveplate 1161 and the polarization direction of the linear polarizer 1163 is 45 degrees. The optical axis of the quarter waveplate 1141 and the optical axis of the quarter waveplate 1161 can have the same direction, but not limited herein. In addition, the included angle between the polarization direction of the linear polarizer 1143 and the polarization direction of the linear polarizer 1163 can be 90 degrees, but not limited herein.
The optical sensor 1081 may be disposed corresponding to the quarter waveplate 1141 and the linear polarizer 1143 in the direction Z, and the optical sensor 1083 may be disposed corresponding to the quarter waveplate 1161 and the linear polarizer 1163 in the direction Z. As shown in
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The optical sensor (such as the optical sensor 1081 or the optical sensor 1083) may include photoelectric conversion components such as a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor, a photodiode (PD), etc. One optical sensor 1081 and one optical sensor 1083 may form a dual channel sensor, and the electronic device 10 may include one or more dual channel sensors. For example, the optical sensor 1081 is served as one of the channels, and the optical sensor 1083 is served as the other one of the channels. In
According to the structure of the electronic device 10 described above, the effects provided by the present invention are described below. As shown in
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In this embodiment, since the included angle between the linear polarizer 1143 and the quarter waveplate 1141 is −45 degrees, the linear polarizer 1143 and the quarter waveplate 1141 also form a right-handed circular polarizer. As shown in
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Similarly, the polarization direction of a portion of the light L4 is parallel to the polarization direction of the linear polarizer 1163, and this portion of the light L4 can pass through the linear polarizer 1163. However, the polarization direction of another portion of the light L4 is perpendicular to the polarization direction of the linear polarizer 1163, and this portion of the light L4 is not able to pass through the linear polarizer 1163.
In addition, the light L2 or the light L4 may have a first intensity before passing through the quarter waveplate 1141 or the quarter waveplate 1161. The light L2 may have a second intensity after passing through the quarter waveplate 1141 and the linear polarizer 1143, or the light L4 may have a second intensity after passing through the quarter waveplate 1161 and the linear polarizer 1163, and the second intensity can be half of the first intensity.
Thus, the optical sensor 1081 can detect the light L2 from the display 102 with the second intensity and the ambient light L5 with the full intensity, and the optical sensor 1083 can detect the light L4 from the display 102 with the second intensity but is not able to detect the ambient light L6. Then, the full intensity of the ambient light L5 can be obtained by subtracting the values obtained by the optical sensor 1081 and the optical sensor 1083 through the calculation element. The calculation element may include a processor or an integrated circuit, but not limited herein.
Therefore, the full intensity of the ambient light L5 can be obtained and the interference of the light L2 and the light L4 emitted by the display 102 can be eliminated through the circular polarizer 104 and the dual channel sensor in this embodiment. For example, the ambient light sensor 1081 and the ambient light sensor 1083 in the electronic device 10 can detect the change of the ambient light without being affected by the change of the image or the brightness of the display 102, so that the electronic device 10 can adjust the screen brightness more precisely.
In addition, a portion of the light emitted by the display 102 may be reflected in the electronic device 10 and detected by the optical sensor 1081 or the optical sensor 1083. Therefore, in some embodiments, the values of the intensity of the light detected by the optical sensor 1081 or the optical sensor 1083 may also be properly adjusted to optimize the intensity of the ambient light eventually obtained.
Other embodiments of the present invention will be detailed in the following. In order to simplify the illustration and clearly show the differences between various embodiments, the same components in the following would be labeled with the same symbol, the differences between various embodiments would be described in detail, and repeated features will not be described redundantly.
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Since the included angle between the linear polarizer 1143 and the quarter waveplate 1141 is −45 degrees, the linear polarizer 1143 and the quarter waveplate 1141 may form a right-handed circular polarizer. As shown in
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The light L2 or the light L4 may be similar to those in the first embodiment. The light L2 or the light L4 may have a first intensity before passing through the quarter waveplate 1141 or the quarter waveplate 1161. The light L2 may have a second intensity after passing through the quarter waveplate 1141 and the linear polarizer 1143, or the light L4 may have a second intensity after passing through the quarter waveplate 1161 and the linear polarizer 1163, and the second intensity is half of the first intensity.
Thus, the optical sensor 1081 can detect the light L2 of the display 102 with the second intensity but is not able to detect the ambient light L5, and the optical sensor 1083 can detect the light L4 of the display 102 with the second intensity and the ambient light L6 with the full intensity. Then, the full intensity of the ambient light L6 can be obtained by subtracting the values obtained by the optical sensor 1081 and the optical sensor 1083 through the calculation element.
Therefore, the full intensity of the ambient light L6 can be obtained and the interference of the light L2 and the light L4 emitted by the display 102 can be eliminated through the circular polarizer 104 and the dual channel sensor in this embodiment. For example, the ambient light sensor 1081 and the ambient light sensor 1083 in the electronic device 10 can detect the change of the ambient light without being affected by the change of the image or the brightness of the display 102, so that the electronic device 10 can adjust the screen brightness more precisely.
According to the embodiments described above, in the present invention, the right-handed circular polarizer (the quarter waveplate 1141 and the linear polarizer 1143) and the left-handed circular polarizer (the quarter waveplate 1161 and the linear polarizer 1163) are respectively disposed on the dual channel sensor (such as the optical sensor 1081 and the optical sensor 1083), thereby achieving the effect of fully detecting ambient light without being affected by the polarization direction of the circular polarizer 106 on the display. In addition, the circular polarizer 104 and the dual channel sensor of the present invention can achieve the filtering function at any angle pertaining to the circularly polarized light passing through the circular polarizer 106 and the display 102. Therefore, the circular polarizer 104 and the dual channel sensor of the present invention are not limited by specific placing angles, so that the circular polarizer 104 and the dual channel sensor have excellent product compatibility and can be compatible in displays having different structures.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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109142387 | Dec 2020 | TW | national |
This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 63/093,290, filed Oct. 18, 2020, and the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63093290 | Oct 2020 | US |