WO2014011389A2

WO2014011389A2 - Displays with minimized border regions

Info

Publication number: WO2014011389A2
Application number: PCT/US2013/047561
Authority: WO
Inventors: Christopher D. Prest; Tseng-mau YANG; Dale N. MEMERING
Original assignee: Apple Inc.
Priority date: 2012-07-13
Filing date: 2013-06-25
Publication date: 2014-01-16
Also published as: WO2014011389A3

Abstract

An electronic device may be provided with a display mounted in a housing. The display may have an array of display pixels that provide image light to a user. The array of display pixels may form an active display structure with a rectangular shape. The rectangular active display structure may be surrounded by an inactive border region. Optical structures such optical fiber bundles, a sheet of glass, or other optical structures may be used to guide display light to enlarge the apparent size of the display and thereby minimize the inactive border region that surrounds the active area of the display.

Description

Displays with Minimized Border Regions

This application claims priority to United

States patent application No. 13/758,910, filed February 4, 2013, United States patent application No. 13/564,995, filed October 11, 2012, United States patent application No. 13/631,141, filed September 28, 2012, United States patent application No. 13/631,024, filed September 28, 2012, and United States provisional patent application No. 61/671,622, filed July 13, 2012, which are hereby

incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Background

This relates generally to electronic devices, and more particularly, to electronic devices with

displays .

Electronic devices often include displays. For example, cellular telephones and portable computers often include displays for presenting information to a user. An electronic device may have a housing such as a housing formed from plastic or metal. Components for the electronic device such as display components may be mounted in the housing.

It can be challenging to incorporate a display into the housing of an electronic device. Size and weight are often important considerations in designing electronic devices. If care is not taken, displays may be bulky or may be surrounded by overly large borders. The housing of an electronic device can be adjusted to accommodate a bulky display with large borders, but this can lead to undesirable enlargement of the size and weight of the housing and unappealing device aesthetics.

In a typical configuration, a rectangular array of display pixels is located in a central active region in the display. An inactive border region surrounds the central active region. Components such as driver circuits can be formed in the inactive border region. The inactive border must generally contain sufficient space for these

components, because these components are used in

controlling the operation of the display. Nevertheless, excessively large inactive border regions may make a device overly large and may detract from device

aesthetics .

In a typical display such as a liquid crystal display, an array of display pixels is used to display images for a user. Each display pixel commonly contains an electrode that is used to apply an adjustable electric field to a portion of a liquid crystal layer. The

magnitude of the electric field in each pixel controls how much light is allowed to pass through the display to the user.

Displays are commonly positioned within a device in a way that allows room for additional device

structures. For example, displays are often covered by one or more display layers and thick protective cover layers. Because the display images generated by the display pixels are generated below these layers, the display image may appear to be located at some distance within the device. This type of arrangement can affect the aesthetics of the device.

As another example, control circuitry for the display is often formed along an edge of the display and space within the device is needed to accommodate the control circuitry. An unused portion of the front face of the display is commonly provided behind which this control circuitry is located.

It would therefore be desirable to be able to provide improved displays for electronic devices.

Summary

A display in an electronic device may have an array of display pixels that provide image light to a user. The display may be mounted within a housing for the electronic device.

The array of display pixels in the display may form an active display structure with a rectangular shape. The rectangular active display structure may be surrounded by an inactive display structure border region. Optical structures such as upper and lower optical structures may be configured to bend light from the display pixels that are located along the periphery of the active display structure so as to enlarge the effective size of the display . The optical structures may include upper optical structures such as a sheet of glass or other optical member having curved edge surfaces for bending light from the display pixels. The optical structures may also include lower optical structures such as strips of glass with curved surfaces that surround an opening or other optical structures having curved surfaces. The lower optical structures may bend light from the display pixels located long the periphery of the active display pixels. The upper optical structures may then bend the light that has passed through the lower optical structures.

A display may have an array of display pixels that generate an image. The display may be mounted in an electronic device housing in a configuration that

minimizes or eliminates the inactive border area

surrounding the display.

The display may have a coherent fiber bundle that is mounted on the display pixels. The coherent fiber bundle may have a first surface that is adjacent to the display pixels and a second surface that is visible to a viewer. The coherent fiber bundle may contain fibers that carry light from the first surface to the second surface.

The second surface may be planar or may have a central planar region and curved edge regions that run along opposing sides of the central planar region. The fibers may have cross-sectional surface areas with a first aspect ratio on the first surface and a second aspect ratio that is greater than the first aspect ratio on the second surface.

The display and coherent fiber bundle may have first and second lateral dimensions. The fibers in the coherent fiber bundle may be curved along one of the lateral dimensions and not the other, so as to create an overhang that covers inactive components.

An electronic device may have a display such as a liquid crystal display. The display may have multiple layers of material such as a color filter layer and a thin-film transistor layer. A layer of liquid crystal material may be interposed between the color filter layer and the thin-film transistor layer.

Display layers such as the color filter layer, the thin-film transistor layer, the liquid crystal layer, and other display layers may be covered by one or more substrate layers that contain optical fibers. For

example, a display may include a first optical fiber layer that is attached to the display layers. The first optical fiber layer may be interposed between the display layers and a second optical fiber layer.

The first optical fiber layer may include bundled fiber optic light guide structures such as bundled optical fibers that are characterized by a first diameter and a first numerical aperture. The second optical fiber layer may include bundled fiber optic light guide

structures such as bundled optical fibers that are

characterized by a second diameter and a second numerical aperture. The first diameter may be larger than the second diameter. The first numerical aperture may be smaller than the second numerical aperture.

Display light generated in the display layers may pass through the first fiber optic light guide

structures and into the second fiber optic light guide structures. The display light may be emitted from an outer surface of the second optical fiber layer. In this way, display images may be generated that appear to a viewer of the display to be generated at the outer surface of the display.

The outer surface of the second optical fiber layer may, if desired, form an outer surface of the electronic device. The second optical fiber layer may be formed form a transparent material such as glass that forms a portion of a protective outer enclosure for the electronic device.

The second optical fiber layer may include vertical fiber optic light guide structures such as vertical optical fibers and angled fiber optic light guide structures such as angled optical fibers. The angled optical fibers may guide display light from a central portion of the display to an edge portion of the display. In this way, an inactive area at the edge of the display may be minimized or eliminated.

An electronic device may be provided with a display. The display may be mounted in a housing. The display may have an array of display pixels that provide image light to a user. Display pixels may be organic light-emitting diode pixels, may be backlit liquid crystal display pixels, or may be display pixels of other types.

The array of display pixels may form an active display structure with a rectangular shape. The

rectangular active display structure may be surrounded by an inactive display structure border region. Optical structures such as a sheet of glass or other optical member may have portions that are configured to bend light from the display pixels that are located along the periphery of the active display structure.

The optical member may have an area that is larger than area of the active display structure. The presence of the optical member and the portions of the optical member that are configured to bend the light may serve to enlarge the apparent size of the display.

Solidified liquid polymer may be used to support the optical structures and may be interposed between the optical structures and the active display structures. A display cover layer may overlap the optical member. A touch sensor and coating layers may be included in the display .

Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed

description of the preferred embodiments.

Brief Description of the Drawings

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device such as a laptop computer with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device such as a handheld electronic device with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device such as a tablet computer with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an illustrative electronic device with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a top view of illustrative display layers in a display having an active region with an array of display pixels and an inactive border region in

accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing how a mold may be used to form display structures such as glass structures with curved surfaces in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing how a slumping process may be used to form display structures such as glass structures with curved surfaces in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing how a machining process may be used to form display structures such as glass structures with curved surfaces in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having optical structures for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having upper optical structures with a concave edge portion and lower optical structures for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having upper optical structures with curved lower surfaces and lower optical structures such as Fresnel lens structures for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an

embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having upper optical structures with curved upper surfaces and lower optical structures with curved upper surfaces for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an

embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display with a solidified liquid polymer layer for supporting upper and lower optical structures configured to bend light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby create a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having upper and lower optical structures for bending light and having a touch sensor on an upper surface of the upper optical structures in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having upper and lower optical structures for bending light and having a touch sensor on a lower surface of the upper optical structures in

accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having upper and lower optical structures for bending light and having a touch sensor on an upper surface of the lower optical structures in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having upper and lower optical structures for bending light and having coating layers on an upper surface of the upper optical structures in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having upper and lower optical structures for bending light and having a planar display cover layer that covers the upper and lower optical structures in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a front perspective view of an illustrative electronic device of the type that may be provided with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a cross-sectional side view of a display with a coherent fiber bundle in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a perspective view of a curved edge portion of an illustrative coherent fiber bundle for a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention .

FIG. 23 is a perspective view of an illustrative coherent fiber bundle in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a top view of the fiber bundle of

FIG. 23 showing how the fiber surfaces at the top of the fiber bundle may have elongated cross-sectional areas in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a bottom view of the fiber bundle of FIG. 23 showing how the fiber surfaces at the bottom of the fiber bundle may have square cross-sectional shapes in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a perspective view of an edge portion of a coherent fiber bundle in a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is an exploded perspective view of an electronic device having a display with a coherent fiber bundle in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention .

FIG. 28 is a cross-sectional side view of a coherent fiber bundle in which fibers have cross-sectional areas with varying aspect ratios in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 29 is a top view of an illustrative display pixel showing how multiple fibers may overlap each pixel in a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 30 is a cross-sectional side view of a display having multiple adjacent coherent fiber bundles in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 31 is a diagram of illustrative equipment that may be used in forming a coherent fiber bundle having fibers with cross-sectional areas of varying aspect ratios in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 32 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device with a display having optical fiber layers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention .

FIG. 33 is a cross-sectional end view of an illustrative electronic device with a display having optical fiber layers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 34 is a cross-sectional end view of an illustrative display with multiple bundled optical fiber layers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention .

FIG. 35 is a cross-sectional side view of a portion of an illustrative diffusion layer that is interposed between optical fiber layers and that is formed from surface features on at least one of the optical fiber layers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 36 is a cross-sectional side view of a portion of an illustrative diffusion layer that is interposed between optical fiber layers and that is formed from an adhesive layer with embedded light redirecting structures in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention .

FIG. 37 is a top view of a portion of an

illustrative display showing how fiber optic light guide structures in a first bundled optical fiber layer may oversample a display pixel and how fiber optic light guide structures in a second bundled optical fiber layer may oversample the fiber optic light guide structures in the first bundled optical fiber layer in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 38 is a cross-sectional end view of a portion of an illustrative display showing how an outer bundled optical fiber layer may include vertical optical fibers and angled optical fibers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 39 is a cross-sectional end view of a portion of an illustrative display showing how an outer bundled optical fiber layer may include only vertical optical fibers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 40 is a cross-sectional side view of a portion of an illustrative display showing how display light generated in a display pixel may be guided to an outer surface of the display by optical fibers in first and second stacked optical fiber layers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 41 is a cross-sectional end view of a substrate having multiple vertical optical fibers that may be used to form a bundled optical fiber layer for a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention .

FIG. 42 is a cross-sectional end view of the substrate of FIG. 41 showing how the substrate may be slumped to form angled optical fibers that may be used to form a bundled optical fiber layer for a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 43 is a cross-sectional end view of a portion of the slumped substrate of FIG. 42 showing how a bundled optical fiber layer with angled optical fibers for a display may be cut from a slumped substrate in

accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 44 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device such as a laptop computer with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 45 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device such as a handheld electronic device with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 46 is a perspective view of an illustrative electronic device such as a tablet computer with a display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 47 is a schematic diagram of an

illustrative electronic device with a display in

accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 48 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 49 is a top view of illustrative display layers in a display having an active region with an array of display pixels and an inactive border region in

accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 50 is a diagram showing how a mold may be used to form display structures such as glass structures with curved surfaces in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 51 is a diagram showing how a slumping process may be used to form display structures such as glass structures with curved surfaces in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 52 is a diagram showing how a machining process may be used to form display structures such as glass structures with curved surfaces in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 53 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display with a glass layer having a curved portion along the edge of a lower surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 54 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display with a glass layer having curved upper and lower surfaces along the edge of the glass layer for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention .

FIG. 55 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display with a glass layer having a convex curved upper surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an

embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 56 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display with a glass layer having edges with curved upper surfaces for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an

embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 57 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display with a glass layer having edges with curved upper surfaces for bending light produced by an array of display pixels that is separated from the glass layer by a gap and thereby creating a borderless

appearance for the display in accordance with an

embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 58 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display with a glass layer having a convex curved upper surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels that is separated from the glass layer by a gap and thereby creating a borderless

appearance for the display in accordance with an

embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 59 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display with a display cover layer and optical structures with angled surfaces for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 60 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display with a glass layer that is covered with one or more coating layers and that has an upper surface with curved edge regions for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 61 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having a glass layer with a curved upper surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and having a layer of clear material such as solidified liquid polymer interposed between the glass layer and array of display pixels in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 62 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having a glass layer with a curved lower surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and having a layer of clear material such as solidified liquid polymer interposed between the glass layer and array of display pixels in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 63 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having a glass layer with a curved surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and having a planar display cover layer in

accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 64 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having a glass layer with a curved surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and having a touch sensor located on a lower surface of the glass layer in accordance with an

embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 65 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having a glass layer with a curved surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and having a touch sensor located on an upper surface of the array of display pixels in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 66 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having a glass layer with a curved surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and having a touch sensor located on an upper surface of the glass layer in accordance with an

embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 67 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having a glass layer with a curved surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and having a touch sensor located on an upper surface of the glass layer under an associated display cover layer in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 68 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative display having a glass layer with a curved surface for bending light produced by an array of display pixels and having a touch sensor located on a lower surface of an associated display cover layer in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Description

Electronic devices may include displays. The displays may be used to display images to a user.

In some configurations, optical structures such as upper and lower optical structures may be configured to bend light from the display pixels that are located along the periphery of the active display structure so as to enlarge the effective size of the display. FIGS. 1-19 show examples of display configurations in which light bending structures are used to enlarge the effective size of the display.

In some configurations, a coherent fiber bundle may be used to minimize or eliminate the inactive border surrounding a display. FIGS. 20-31 show examples of display configurations in which coherent fiber bundles are used to minimize or eliminate the inactive border

surrounding a display.

In some configurations, one or more optical fiber layers may be used to generate images at the edge portion of a display to thereby minimize or eliminate inactive area at the edge of the display. FIGS. 32-43 show examples of display configurations in which one or more optical fiber layers may be used to generate images at the edge portion of a display.

In some configurations, optical structures such as a sheet of glass may have portions that are configured to bend light from the display pixels at the periphery of a display, thereby creating a borderless appearance for the display. FIGS. 44-68 show examples of display

configurations in which optical structures such as a sheet of glass may have portions that are configured to bend light from the display pixels at the periphery of a display .

Illustrative electronic devices that may be provided with displays having light bending structures are shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3.

FIG. 1 shows how electronic device 10 may have the shape of a laptop computer having upper housing 12A and lower housing 12B with components such as keyboard 16 and touchpad 18. Device 10 may have hinge structures 20 that allow upper housing 12A to rotate in directions 22 about rotational axis 24 relative to lower housing 12B. Display 14 may be mounted in upper housing 12A. Upper housing 12A, which may sometimes referred to as a display housing or lid, may be placed in a closed position by rotating upper housing 12A towards lower housing 12B about rotational axis 24.

FIG. 2 shows how electronic device 10 may be a handheld device such as a cellular telephone, music player, gaming device, navigation unit, or other compact device. In this type of configuration for device 10, housing 12 may have opposing front and rear surfaces.

Display 14 may be mounted on a front face of housing 12. Display 14 may, if desired, have a display cover layer or other exterior layer that includes openings for components such as button 26. Openings may also be formed in a display cover layer or other display layer to accommodate a speaker port (see, e.g., speaker port 28 of FIG. 2) .

FIG. 3 shows how electronic device 10 may be a tablet computer. In electronic device 10 of FIG. 3, housing 12 may have opposing planar front and rear

surfaces. Display 14 may be mounted on the front surface of housing 12. As shown in FIG. 3, display 14 may have a cover layer or other external layer with an opening to accommodate button 26 (as an example) .

The illustrative configurations for device 10 that are shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 are merely

illustrative. In general, electronic device 10 may be a laptop computer, a computer monitor containing an embedded computer, a tablet computer, a cellular telephone, a media player, or other handheld or portable electronic device, a smaller device such as a wrist-watch device, a pendant device, a headphone or earpiece device, or other wearable or miniature device, a television, a computer display that does not contain an embedded computer, a gaming device, a navigation device, an embedded system such as a system in which electronic equipment with a display is mounted in a kiosk or automobile, equipment that implements the

functionality of two or more of these devices, or other electronic equipment.

Housing 12 of device 10, which is sometimes referred to as a case, may be formed of materials such as plastic, glass, ceramics, carbon-fiber composites and other fiber-based composites, metal (e.g., machined aluminum, stainless steel, or other metals) , other

materials, or a combination of these materials. Device 10 may be formed using a unibody construction in which most or all of housing 12 is formed from a single structural element (e.g., a piece of machined metal or a piece of molded plastic) or may be formed from multiple housing structures (e.g., outer housing structures that have been mounted to internal frame elements or other internal housing structures) .

Display 14 may be a touch sensitive display that includes a touch sensor or may be insensitive to touch. Touch sensors for display 14 may be formed from an array of capacitive touch sensor electrodes, a resistive touch array, touch sensor structures based on acoustic touch, optical touch, or force-based touch technologies, or other suitable touch sensor components.

Displays for device 10 may, in general, include image pixels formed from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) , organic LEDs (OLEDs) , plasma cells, electrowetting pixels, electrophoretic pixels, liquid crystal display (LCD) components, or other suitable image pixel structures. In some situations, it may be desirable to use LCD components to form display 14, so configurations for display 14 in which display 14 is a liquid crystal display are sometimes described herein as an example. It may also be desirable to provide displays such as display 14 with backlight structures, so configurations for display 14 that include a backlight unit may sometimes be described herein as an example. Other types of display technology may be used in device 10 if desired. The use of liquid crystal display structures and backlight structures in device 10 is merely illustrative .

A display cover layer may cover the surface of display 14 or a display layer such as a color filter layer or other portion of a display may be used as the outermost (or nearly outermost) layer in display 14. A display cover layer or other outer display layer may be formed from a transparent glass sheet, a clear plastic layer, or other transparent structures.

Touch sensor components such as an array of capacitive touch sensor electrodes formed from transparent materials such as indium tin oxide may be formed on the underside of a display cover layer, may be formed on a separate display layer such as a glass or polymer touch sensor substrate, or may be integrated into other display layers (e.g., substrate layers such as a thin-film

transistor layer) .

A schematic diagram of an illustrative configuration that may be used for electronic device 10 is shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, electronic device 10 may include control circuitry 29. Control circuitry 29 may include storage and processing circuitry for

controlling the operation of device 10. Control circuitry 29 may, for example, include storage such as hard disk drive storage, nonvolatile memory (e.g., flash memory or other electrically-programmable-read-only memory

configured to form a solid state drive) , volatile memory (e.g., static or dynamic random-access-memory), etc.

Control circuitry 29 may include processing circuitry based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, baseband processors, power management units, audio codec chips, application specific integrated circuits, etc.

Control circuitry 29 may be used to run software on device 10, such as operating system software and application software. Using this software, control circuitry 29 may present information to a user of

electronic device 10 on display 14. Display 14 may contain an array of display pixels (e.g., liquid crystal display pixels) that are organized in rows and columns. Control circuitry 29 may be used to display content for a user of device 10 on the array of display pixels in display 14.

Input-output circuitry 30 may be used to allow data to be supplied to device 10 and to allow data to be provided from device 10 to external devices. Input-output circuitry 30 may include communications circuitry 32.

Communications circuitry 32 may include wired

communications circuitry for supporting communications using data ports in device 10. Communications circuitry 32 may also include wireless communications circuits

(e.g., circuitry for transmitting and receiving wireless radio-frequency signals using antennas) .

Input-output circuitry 30 may also include input-output devices 34. A user can control the operation of device 10 by supplying commands through input-output devices 34 and may receive status information and other output from device 10 using the output resources of input- output devices 34.

Input-output devices 34 may include sensors and status indicators 36 such as an ambient light sensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a magnetic sensor, an accelerometer, and light-emitting diodes and other components for gathering information about the environment in which device 10 is operating and providing information to a user of device 10 about the status of device 10.

Audio components 38 may include speakers and tone generators for presenting sound to a user of device 10 and microphones for gathering user audio input.

Display 14 (e.g., the array of display pixels in display 14) may be used to present images for a user such as text, video, and still images. Sensors 36 may include a touch sensor array that is formed as one of the layers in display 14.

User input may be gathered using buttons and other input-output components 40 such as touch pad

sensors, buttons, joysticks, click wheels, scrolling wheels, touch sensors such as sensors 36 in display 14, key pads, keyboards, vibrators, cameras, and other input- output components.

A cross-sectional side view of an illustrative configuration that may be used for display 14 of device 10 (e.g., for display 14 of the devices of FIG. 1, FIG. 2, or FIG. 3 or other suitable electronic devices) is shown in FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 5, display 14 may include backlight structures such as backlight unit 42 for

producing backlight 44. During operation, backlight 44 travels outwards (vertically upwards in dimension Z in the orientation of FIG. 5) and passes through display pixel structures in display layers 46. This illuminates any images that are being produced by the display pixels for viewing by a user. For example, backlight 44 may

illuminate images on display layers 46 that are being viewed by viewer 48 in direction 50.

Display 14 may, if desired, have one or more optical structures that are located above display layers 46. For example, display 14 may have a display cover layer such as display cover layer 84. Display cover layer 84 may be formed from a layer of clear glass, a

transparent sheet of plastic, or other transparent

structure. Display cover layer 84 may be mounted in housing 12 (e.g., using housing sidewalls) . During operation, light 44 may pass through the array of display pixels formed from display layers 46 and display cover layer 84 for viewing by user 48.

Display layers 46 may be mounted in chassis structures such as a plastic chassis structure and/or a metal chassis structure to form a display module for mounting in housing 12 or display layers 46 may be mounted directly in housing 12 (e.g., by stacking display layers 46 into a recessed portion in housing 12) . Display layers 46 may form a liquid crystal display or may be used in forming displays of other types. Display layers 46 may sometimes be referred to as a display module, a display, or an array of display pixels. The image light (light 44) that passes through the array of display pixels is used in displaying content on display 14 for user 48.

In a configuration in which display layers 46 are used in forming a liquid crystal display, display layers 46 may include a liquid crystal layer such a liquid crystal layer 52. Liquid crystal layer 52 may be

sandwiched between display layers such as display layers 58 and 56. Layers 56 and 58 may be interposed between lower polarizer layer 60 and upper polarizer layer 54. Layers 58 and 56 may be formed from transparent substrate layers such as clear layers of glass or plastic. Layers 56 and 58 may be layers such as a thin-film

transistor layer and/or a color filter layer. Conductive traces, color filter elements, transistors, and other circuits and structures may be formed on the substrates of layers 58 and 56 (e.g., to form a thin-film transistor layer and/or a color filter layer) . Touch sensor

electrodes may also be incorporated into layers such as layers 58 and 56 and/or touch sensor electrodes may be formed on other substrates.

With one illustrative configuration, layer 58 may be a thin-film transistor layer that includes an array of thin-film transistors and associated electrodes

(display pixel electrodes) for applying electric fields to liquid crystal layer 52 and thereby displaying images on display 14. Layer 56 may be a color filter layer that includes an array of color filter elements for providing display 14 with the ability to display color images. If desired, layer 58 may be a color filter layer and layer 56 may be a thin-film transistor layer.

During operation of display 14 in device 10, control circuitry 29 (e.g., one or more integrated

circuits such as components 68 on printed circuit 66 of FIG. 5) may be used to generate information to be

displayed on display 14 (e.g., display data). The

information to be displayed may be conveyed from circuitry 68 to display control circuitry such as display driver integrated circuit 62 using a signal path such as a signal path formed from conductive metal traces in flexible printed circuit 64 (as an example) . Display driver integrated circuit 62 may be mounted on thin-film-transistor layer driver ledge 82 or elsewhere in device 10. During operation of display 14, display driver circuitry 62 and/or other display control circuitry such as gate driver circuitry formed on

substrate 58 or coupled to substrate 58 may be used in controlling the array of display pixels in layers 46 (e.g., using a grid of vertical data lines and horizontal gate lines) .

A flexible printed circuit cable such as

flexible printed circuit 64 may be used in routing signals between printed circuit 66 and thin-film-transistor layer 58. If desired, display driver integrated circuit 62 may be mounted on printed circuit 66 or flexible printed circuit 64. Printed circuit 66 may be formed from a rigid printed circuit board (e.g., a layer of fiberglass-filled epoxy) or a flexible printed circuit (e.g., a flexible sheet of polyimide or other flexible polymer layer) .

Backlight structures 42 may include a light guide plate such as light guide plate 78. Light guide plate 78 may be formed from a transparent material such as clear glass or plastic. During operation of backlight structures 42, a light source such as light source 72 may generate light 74. Light source 72 may be, for example, an array of light-emitting diodes.

Light 74 from light source 72 may be coupled into edge surface 76 of light guide plate 78 and may be distributed in dimensions X and Y throughout light guide plate 78 due to the principal of total internal

reflection. Light guide plate 78 may include light- scattering features such as pits or bumps. The light- scattering features may be located on an upper surface and/or on an opposing lower surface of light guide plate 78.

Light 74 that scatters upwards in direction Z from light guide plate 78 may serve as backlight 44 for display 14. Light 74 that scatters downwards may be reflected back in the upwards direction by reflector 80. Reflector 80 may be formed from a reflective material such as a layer of white plastic or other shiny materials.

To enhance backlight performance for backlight structures 42, backlight structures 42 may include optical films 70. Optical films 70 may include diffuser layers for helping to homogenize backlight 44 and thereby reduce hotspots, compensation films for enhancing off-axis viewing, and brightness enhancement films (also sometimes referred to as turning films) for collimating backlight 44. Optical films 70 may overlap the other structures in backlight unit 42 such as light guide plate 78 and

reflector 80. For example, if light guide plate 78 has a rectangular footprint in the X-Y plane of FIG. 5, optical films 70 and reflector 80 may have a matching rectangular footprint. Display layers 46 and the other display structures of FIG. 5 typically have rectangular shapes with four peripheral edges, but display configurations with other shapes may be used in forming display 14 if desired .

As shown in FIG. 6, display structures 46 of display 14 may include a plurality of display pixels 86. Display pixels 86 may be organized in rows and columns. Display control circuitry may be used in controlling the operation of display pixels 86 using signal lines such as data lines 88 and gate lines 90. In liquid crystal displays, display pixels 86 may each contain an electrode for applying an electric field to an associated portion of liquid crystal layer 52 (FIG. 5) and a thin-film

(amorphous silicon or polysilicon) transistor for

controlling the magnitude of the signal applied to the electrode and therefore the magnitude of the electric field. In other types of displays, display pixels 86 may be formed from other types of structures (e.g., organic light-emitting diodes, etc.).

Lines 90 may be coupled to the gates of the thin-film transistors and may sometimes be referred to as gate lines. Lines 88 may be coupled to the sources of the thin-film transistors and may sometimes be referred to as source lines or data lines. Gate driver circuitry (e.g., thin-film transistor gate driver circuitry) may be coupled to gate lines 90. Display driver circuitry that produces data signals for lines 88 (e.g., a display driver

integrated circuit) may be coupled to data lines 88.

Gate driver circuitry, one or more display driver integrated circuits, traces for distributing gate and data signals and other display control signals, and other display control circuitry may be formed in inactive region 461 of display 14 and display structures 46. As an example, a display driver integrated circuit may be mounted along the upper segment of inactive region 461, whereas gate driver thin-film circuitry may be formed along the left and right segments of inactive region 461. During operation of display 14, display pixels 86 may display images for a user, so the portion of display structures 46 containing display pixels 86 may sometimes be referred to as active display structures or the active area of display 14. The metal traces and other display control circuit structures in inactive region 461 do not display any images, so this portion of structures 46 may sometimes be referred to as inactive display structures.

Inactive region 461 may form a border that surrounds some or all of active area 46A. For example, inactive region 461 may have a rectangular ring shape of the type shown in FIG. 6 having opposing upper and lower border segments and left and right border segments. To provide display 14 with a borderless appearance, display 14 may be provided with optical structures such as glass layers and other structures with curved or angled

surfaces. The optical structures may be configured to bend and therefore guide light that is emitted from the array of display pixels 86 in active area 46A into a portion of display 14 that overlaps inactive area 461. By using optical structures to bend light from active area 46A, content may be displayed in portions of display 14 that overlap inactive regions 461, providing display 14 with a borderless or near borderless appearance.

The optical structures that are used to enhance the apparent size of display 14 may be formed from

transparent materials such as clear glass or plastic structures. As an example, the optical structures may be formed from sheets of clear glass or plastic material or from glass, plastic, or other transparent material of other shapes. Optical structures with curved and angled surfaces for bending light may be formed using molding equipment, slumping equipment, machining equipment, or other tools for shaping clear material. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing how a mold may be used to form optical structures with curved surfaces for bending light in display 14. As shown in FIG. 7, molding equipment 92 may include mold structures such as upper mold structures 94 and lower mold structures 98.

Structures such as mold structures 94 and 98 may be heated. Optical material 102 (e.g., glass, plastic, ceramic, etc.) may be molded between the opposing surfaces of mold structures 94 and 98 (e.g., when upper mold structure 94 is moved in direction 96 and/or when lower mold structures 98 is moved in direction 100) . If

desired, molding operations may also involve injection molding techniques. By molding material 102 with molding equipment 92, optical structures 104 that have curved or angle surfaces may be formed.

As shown in the illustrative configuration of FIG. 8, a slumping process may be used in forming optical structures with curved surfaces for bending light in display 14. Slumping equipment 106 may include a heated metal structure or other equipment with exposed curved surfaces such as curved surface 110. Optical material 108 (e.g., glass, plastic, ceramic, etc.) may be placed on top of surface 110 while slumping equipment 106 is heated. When equipment 106 reaches a sufficiently high

temperature, optical material 108 will slump under its own weight, thereby creating optical structures with curved surfaces such as optical structures 112. Following cooling, structures 112 may be removed from slumping equipment 106. As shown on the right-hand side of FIG. 8, the resulting shape for optical structures 112 may have curved surfaces such as curved upper surface 114 and curved lower surface 116.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing how a machining process may be used to form display structures such as glass structures with curved surfaces. As shown in FIG. 9, optical material 130 may be processed using machining equipment 118. Machining equipment 118 may have a

machining head such as head 124 (e.g., a drill bit, milling cutter, or other machining tool) . Actuator 120 may use shaft 122 to rotate head 124 in direction 126 about rotational axis 128. Actuator 120 may include a motor for rotating shaft 122 and computer-controlled positioners for adjusting the location of shaft 122 and head 124 relative to optical material 130. Following machining of the edges or other portions of optical structures 130, optical structures 130 may have curved surfaces such as curved surfaces 132, as shown on the right-hand side of FIG. 9.

By providing optical structures in display 14 with curved edges or other curved or angled surfaces, the optical structures may bend light that is emitted from display pixels 86 in a way that allows the light to extend laterally outward over the otherwise inactive portions of the display. As a result, it will appear to a user of the display as if the display is borderless or nearly

borderless.

To provide satisfactory light bending within tight spaces in device 10, it may be desirable to use multiple layers of light-bending structures. For example, optical structures for bending light for display 14 may include a first set of structures (e.g., an optical member or other optical structures formed from glass, plastic, or ceramic) that are located lower in display 14 (i.e., closer to display structures 46) and a second set of structures (e.g., an optical member or other optical structures formed from glass, plastic, or ceramic) that is located higher in display 14 (i.e., farther from display structures 46 and closer to viewer 48) .

An illustrative display of the type that may use curved optical structures to achieve a borderless or near borderless appearance to a viewer is shown in FIG. 10. As shown in the cross-sectional side view of display 14 in

FIG. 10, display 14 may include active area display layers such as active display structures 46A. Inactive display structures such as inactive display structures 461 of FIG. 6 that surround the periphery of active display structures 46A are not shown.

Active area display structures 46A may contain a rectangular array of display pixels such as display pixels 86 with a rectangular peripheral edge. Light rays 44 associated with display pixels 86 may be produced by a backlight unit (e.g., a backlight unit in a display such as a backlit liquid crystal display) , may be produced by light reflected off of a reflector such as reflector 80 of FIG. 5, or may be emitted by light-emitting diode

structures or other light sources within display pixels 86.

Optical structures 134 (e.g., optical structures of the type formed using the equipment of FIGS. 7, 8, and 9 or other equipment) may be formed from transparent optical members. For example, a display may be provided with transparent structures formed from glass, plastic, ceramic, or other clear material. Optical structures 134 may include multiple layers of structures such as optical structures 134T and optical structures 134B. Optical structures 134T may be located farther from active display structures 46A and closer to viewer 48 than optical structures 134B, so optical structures 134T may sometimes be referred to as upper or outer optical structure and optical structures 134B may sometimes be referred to lower or inner optical structures.

Optical structures 134T and 134B of FIG. 10 may have planar surfaces such as upper surface 136 of

structures 134T. Structures 134T may be formed from a sheet of material such as glass, polymer, or ceramic. As shown in FIG. 10, optical structures 134 and may have curved or angled surfaces such as curved surfaces 138T on upper optical structures 134T and curved surfaces 138B on lower optical structures 134B.

Curved surfaces may be located on the upper and/or lower sides of optical structures 134T and 134B. For example, in a rectangular display having top, bottom, left, and right edges, curved surfaces such as surfaces 138T and/or 138B may be formed along the right and left edges or may run around the entire periphery of the display (e.g., along the right, left, top, and bottom edges when viewed in direction 50 by viewer 48) .

Curved and angled surfaces in optical structures

134B and 134T may allow optical structures 134B and 134T to serve as light bending structures to bend light 44 from active display structures 46A so that the entire lateral expanse of display 14 appears to be filled with active image content. Display 14 may, for example, appear to have no left and right borders (when viewed in direction 50) and/or may additionally have no upper and lower borders (when viewed in direction 50) . The lateral dimensions (in X and Y) for active display structures 46A are less than the respective lateral dimensions X and Y of upper optical structures 134T, so the area of structures 134T is greater than the area of active display structures 46A and the apparent image size for display 14 is

enlarged. By enlarging the apparent size of the display, the display may be made to appear borderless or nearly borderless, even if active display structures 46A are surrounded by a border of inactive structures such as structures 46B.

Rays of light from active display structures 46A such as light ray 44M are produced by display pixels 86 that are near to the center of display 14. In this portion of display 14, light may travel vertically upwards to viewer 48 without significant bending. Light 44 in the center of display 14 may, for example, travel through a central opening in optical structures 134B and may travel through planar or nearly planar portions of optical structures 134T. Near to the peripheral edges of active display structures 46A, however, light rays such as light rays 44E are emitted that are bent by the curved (angled) nature of the edges of optical structures 134B and 134T (e.g., surfaces 138B and 138T) .

As shown by the bent trajectory of light rays 44E, light rays 44E that are emitted by display pixels 86 along the edges of active display structures 46A may, upon passing through optical structures 134B and being bent by optical structures 134B and upon passing through optical structures 134T and being further bent by optical structures 134T, appear to viewer 48 as if they were emitted by display pixels located in inactive border region IA. The lateral extent (e.g., width W in FIG. 10) of display 14 over which light rays 44 are emitted and therefore the effective size of display 14 for displaying content to viewer 48 is enhanced by the presence of curved portions 138B and 138T of optical structures 134B and 134T, so that it appears as if display 14 has an active area of lateral dimension W, rather than the more limited size of active area AA that is associated with the

physical size of the array of display pixels 86 in

structures 46A.

The use of multiple layers of optical structures in display 14 such as lower structures 134B and upper structures 134T (and if desired one or more additional layers of light bending optical structures 134) allows structures 134 to efficiently and accurately guide light 44. Lower structures 134B perform some light bending and, following passage through a gap such as air gap G or a gap filled with a clear material such as a polymer that allows rays 44E to spread out from each other, upper structures 134T may perform additional light bending. Using the light bending capabilities of structures 134B and 134T in this way, surface 136 can be entirely covered with active display pixel content (e.g., graphics, text, video, etc.), providing display 14 with a borderless or nearly

borderless appearance, despite the presence of display control circuitry and other inactive structures in

inactive region 461 of display structures 46 (FIG. 6) .

As shown in the illustrative example of FIG. 10, optical structures 134B may have a central opening overlapping the center of active display structures 46A. Light rays such as rays 44M may pass through this opening. Optical structures 134B may also have curved surfaces 138B that are located on the upper surface of structures 134B near the peripheral edge of display structures 46A.

Structures 134B may have a rectangular outline (shape) when viewed in direction 50 (i.e., structures 134B may be formed from a rectangular ring-shaped member of optical material or other optical structures with curved edge surfaces) . One or more, two or more, three or more, or four of the edges of rectangular optical structures 134B may be provided with curved surfaces such as surfaces 138B. Upper optical structures 134T may be formed from a glass member such as a sheet of glass with one or more curved or angled surfaces, a ceramic or plastic member with one or more curved or angled surfaces, or other optical structures configured to bend light 44E.

FIG. 11 shows how the lower surface of optical member 134T may, if desired, be provided with a concave curved surface shape. Upper surface 136 of optical member 134T may be planar. The lower surface of optical

structures 134B in this type of configuration may be planar and may lie against the planar upper surface of structures 46A (as an example) . Upper surfaces 138B of lower optical structures 134B may be angled or curved (as examples) . An opening (e.g., a rectangular opening) may be formed in the center of optical structures 134B.

If desired, optical structures such as optical structures 134B and 134T may include Fresnel lenses. As shown in FIG. 12, for example, lower optical structures 134B may be Fresnel lens structures having Fresnel lens sections that form respective curved or angled surfaces such as surfaces 138B-1, 138B-2, 138B-3, and 138B-4.

Fresnel lens structures may be used to bend light in display 14, as described in connection with optical structures 134B of FIG. 10. The thickness T of Fresnel lens structures such as optical structures 134B of FIG. 12 may be thinner than comparable light-bending structures that are not based on Fresnel lens structures, allowing the thickness of display 14 to be minimized.

In the configuration of FIG. 13, display 14 has been provide with upper optical structures 134T that have an upper surface with a planar central region and curved peripheral edge portions 138T. The lower surface of optical structures 134T may be planar. Lower optical structures 134B may have curved upper surfaces 138B.

Optical structures 134B may be mounted against active display structures 46A or may be mounted so that an air gap or a gap filled with materials other than air such as solidified liquid polymer is formed between optical structures 134B and active display structures 46A. An air gap or a gap filled with materials other than air such as solidified liquid polymer may also be formed between the lower surface of upper optical structures 134T and the upper surface of lower optical structures 134B.

FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional side view of display 14 in a configuration in which optical structures 134B have been mounted so that there is no air gap between the lower surfaces of optical structures 134B and the upper surface of active display structures 46A and so that clear material such as solidified liquid polymer 144 has been formed in the gap between upper optical structures 134T and the upper surfaces of optical structures 134B and active display structures 46A. Polymer layer 144 may be used to help attach upper optical structures 134T to device 10.

Polymer material 144 may be formed from a cured optical adhesive (e.g., optically clear adhesive).

Optical structures 134B may be attached to display

structures 46A using adhesive (as an example) . Polymer 144 (e.g., uncured liquid polymer) may be placed on top of display structures 46A and 134B by dripping, screen printing, spraying, or other suitable techniques. Optical structures 134T may then be placed on top of the liquid polymer. Ultraviolet light curing or thermal curing techniques may then be used to cure the polymer material to form solid polymer support structures such as

structures 144 of FIG. 14. Polymer layer 144 may have an index of refraction of 1.1 to 1.3 or less than 1.3 (as examples) . Optical structures 134 may have an index of refraction of 1.4 to 1.8 or 1.3 to 1.7 (as examples) .

If desired, device 10 may be provided with touch sensor functionality. A touch sensor for device 10 may be implemented using an array of capacitive touch sensor electrodes (e.g., transparent conductive electrodes such as indium tin oxide electrodes) , may use resistive touch technology, light-based touch sensors, acoustic touch sensor technology, or other touch sensor technology. As an example, a capacitive touch sensor for device 10 may be implemented using a one-sided or two-sided array of indium tin oxide electrodes. The electrodes may be formed on a touch sensor substrate such as a layer of glass or plastic that is separate from other layers in display 14 (e.g., a touch sensor substrate that is mounted within display 14 using adhesive) or may be formed on the surface of optical structures 134T, a display cover layer that is located above structures 134T, optical structures 134B, display structures 46, or other structures in display 14.

FIG. 15 is a cross-sectional side view of display 14 in a configuration in which touch sensor 146 has been formed on the upper surface of optical structures 134T. An air gap or polymer-filled gap may separate optical structures 134T from display structures 46A and optical structures 134B. Touch sensor 146 may include capacitive touch sensor structures such as a one-layer or two-layer array of indium tin oxide electrodes. The indium tin oxide electrodes or other touch sensor

structures for touch sensor 146 may be formed directly on the upper surface of optical structures 134T or may be formed on a substrate (e.g., a sheet of glass or polymer) that is attached to the surface of optical structures 134T by adhesive (as examples) .

In the illustrative configuration of FIG. 16, touch sensor 146 has been formed on the lower surface of optical structures 134T (directly or by attaching a touch panel substrate with electrodes to the lower surface of structures 134T using adhesive) . An air gap or a gap filled with polymer 144 may be interposed between touch sensor 146 and display structures 46A and optical

structures 134B.

FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional side view of display 14 in a configuration in which touch sensor 146 has been formed on the upper surface of display structures 46A and upper surfaces 138B of lower optical structures 134B. Touch sensor 146 may, for example, be formed on a flexible substrate such as a sheet of polymer that is attached to the upper surface of display structures 46A and the upper surfaces of optical structures 134B by adhesive. Touch sensor structures may also be formed on structures 46A and 134B using physical vapor deposition or other deposition techniques (e.g., to form patterned indium tin oxide electrodes, etc.) . An air gap or a gap filled with polymer 144 may be interposed between touch sensor 146 and structures 134T.

As shown in FIG. 18, optical structures 134 in display 14 such as upper optical structures 134T and lower optical structures 134B may be provided with optical coating layers such as layers 142. In the example of FIG. 18, the upper surface of upper optical structures 134T have been coated with coating layers 142. This is merely illustrative. The upper and/or lower surfaces of upper optical structures 134T may be provided with coating layers 142, the upper and/or lower surfaces of lower optical structures 134T may be provided with coating layers 142, and/or both optical structures 134T and 134B may have one or more surfaces covered with coating layers 142.

Layers 142 may be formed from dielectrics such as sputtered oxides, from clear materials deposited using physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, or other deposition techniques (e.g., coatings of glass, polymer, ceramic, or other materials) , or may be formed from other transparent coating layers on optical

structures 134. There may be one or more layers 142, two or more layers 142, three or more layers 142, or four or more layers 142. Layers 142 may include layers such as antireflection layers (e.g., dielectric stacks with alternating high-index-of-refraction and low-index-of- refraction layers) , antismudge layers, antiscratch layers, or other layers to modify the properties of the upper and/or lower surface of optical structures 134. An air gap or a gap filled with polymer 144 may separate the lower surface (coated or uncoated with layers 142) of upper optical structures 134T from the upper surface

(coated or uncoated with layers 142) of lower optical structures 134B and touch sensor 146 of FIG. 18.

In the illustrative configuration of FIG. 19, optical structures 134 such as upper optical structures 134T have been covered with a layer of transparent

material such as display cover layer 140. Display cover layer 140 may be a planar sheet of glass, plastic,

ceramic, or other transparent material having opposing planar upper and lower surfaces. Optical structures 134T may have a planar upper surface such as upper surface 136. Upper surface 136 may be coplanar with the planar lower surface of display cover layer 140. Display cover layer 140 may, if desired, by coupled to optical structures 134T using a layer of adhesive. Coating layers 142 may, if desired, be formed on the upper and/or lower surface of display cover layer 140. A touch sensor such as touch sensor 146 may be interposed between the lower surface of display cover layer 140 and the upper surface of upper optical structures 134T.

Lower structures 134B may have curved or angled edge surfaces 138B that lie in planes that are not

coplanar with upper surface 136 to allow the edges of optical structures 134B to bend light from display

structures 46A. Light may also be bent by the curved or angled surfaces of display structures 134T such as surfaces 138T. Air gaps or gaps filled with polymer 144 may separate display cover layer 140, optical structures 134T, optical structures 134B, and/or display structures 46A of FIG. 20.

In accordance with an embodiment, a display for displaying content with an apparent size to a user is provided that includes active display structures having an area, upper optical structures having an area larger than the area of the active display structures, and lower optical structures that are interposed between the active display structures and the upper optical structures, the lower optical structures are configured to bend light from at least some of the active display structures, and the upper optical structures are configured to bend light that has passed though the lower optical structures to make the apparent size of the display larger than the area of the active display structures.

In accordance with another embodiment, the active display structures include an array of display pixels with a rectangular periphery and the lower and upper optical structures are configured to bend light from display pixels in the array of display pixels that are located along the rectangular periphery.

In accordance with another embodiment, the upper optical structures include a sheet of material having opposing first and second surfaces.

In accordance with another embodiment, the upper optical structures include curved surfaces that bend the light .

In accordance with another embodiment, the lower optical structures include curved surfaces that bend the light .

In accordance with another embodiment, the lower optical structures have a central opening over the active display structures through which light passes from a portion of the array of display pixels without bending.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes a touch sensor.

In accordance with another embodiment, the first surface of the upper optical structures include a planar outer surface, the second surface of the upper optical structures faces the active display structures, and the touch sensor is formed on the second surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, the first surface of the upper optical structures includes a planar outer surface, the second surface of the upper optical structures faces the active display structures, and the touch sensor is formed on the first surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes a display cover layer that overlaps the upper optical structures.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes a glass display cover layer that overlaps the upper optical structures, and a touch sensor between the glass display cover layer and the upper optical structures .

In accordance with another embodiment, the upper optical structures include a layer of glass with curved edge surfaces that bend the light. In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes a coating on the upper optical

structures .

In accordance with another embodiment, the coating includes an antireflection coating.

In accordance with another embodiment, the active display structures include an array of liquid crystal display pixels.

In accordance with another embodiment, the lower optical structures include Fresnel lens structures.

In accordance with an embodiment, an electronic device is provided that includes a housing, a display in the housing, the display has active display structures that include an array of display pixels having an area with a rectangular shape and a peripheral edge, and

upper optical structures having an area larger than the area of the array of display pixels, and lower optical structures that are interposed between the active display structures and the upper optical structures, the lower optical structures are configured to bend light from at least the active display structures along the peripheral edge, and the upper optical structures are configured to bend light that has passed though the lower optical structures .

In accordance with another embodiment, the upper optical structures include a layer of glass with curved edge surfaces.

In accordance with another embodiment, the electronic device includes a layer of polymer interposed between the upper optical structures and the lower optical structures . In accordance with another embodiment, the lower optical structures include an opening that overlaps the array of display pixels and curved edge surfaces that bend the light.

In accordance with an embodiment, a display is provided that includes active display structures that include an array of display pixels with a rectangular shape and a peripheral edge, glass structures having portions that run along the peripheral edge and having a central opening that overlaps the array of display pixels, the glass structures have curved surfaces that bend light from at least some of the display pixels along the

peripheral edge, and a glass sheet having curved edge surfaces that are configured to bend the light to provide the display with an area that displays images that is larger than the rectangular shape.

In accordance with another embodiment, the array of display pixels includes an array of liquid crystal display pixels.

In accordance with another embodiment, the glass sheet has opposing upper and lower surfaces and curved edge surfaces are formed on the lower surface to bend the light from the display pixels along the peripheral edge.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes polymer between the glass sheet and the glass structures that supports the glass sheet.

In accordance with another embodiment, the glass structures include Fresnel lens structures.

An illustrative electronic device of the type that may be provided with a display having one or more optical fiber layers is shown in FIG. 20. Device 10 of FIG. 20 may be a handheld device such as a cellular telephone or media player, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, other portable computing equipment, a wearable or miniature device such as a wristwatch or pendant device, a television, a computer monitor, or other electronic equipment.

As shown in FIG. 20, electronic device 10 may include a display such as display 214. Display 214 may be a touch screen that incorporates a layer of conductive capacitive touch sensor electrodes or other touch sensor components or may be a display that is not touch- sensitive. Display 214 may include an array of display pixels formed from liquid crystal display (LCD)

components, an array of electrophoretic display pixels, an array of electrowetting display pixels, or display pixels based on other display technologies.

Display 214 may be protected using an optional display cover layer such as a layer of transparent glass or clear plastic. Openings may be formed in the display cover layer. For example, an opening may be formed in the display cover layer to accommodate a button such as button 216 and an opening such as opening 218 may be used to form a speaker port. Device configurations without openings in display 214 may also be used for device 10.

Device 10 may have a housing such as housing 212. Housing 212, which may sometimes be referred to as an enclosure or case, may be formed of plastic, glass, ceramics, fiber composites, metal (e.g., stainless steel, aluminum, etc.), other suitable materials, or a combination of any two or more of these materials.

Housing 212 may be formed using a unibody configuration in which some or all of housing 212 is machined or molded as a single structure or may be formed using multiple structures (e.g., an internal frame

structure, one or more structures that form exterior housing surfaces, etc.).

Display 214 may be characterized by an active region such as rectangular active region 220 (the area inside rectangular dotted line 224) . Images may be displayed in the active region using an associated array of display pixels (e.g., backlight LCD cells, organic light-emitting diode cells, or other image-producing display elements) . The rectangular active region 220 may be surrounded by an inactive region such as inactive border region 222.

Inactive border region 222 may be characterized by a minimum width W2 (e.g., along the left and right edges of display 214 of FIG. 20) . To minimize the size of width W, display 214 may be provided with a coherent fiber bundle that expands the size of the display along the edges of device 10 (e.g., in lateral dimension X) . The size of width W2 may be reduced to less than 2 mm, less than 1 mm, less than 0.5 mm, less than 0.2 mm, or may be reduced to zero or a negligible amount.

FIG. 21 is a cross-sectional side view of display 214 taken along line 226 and viewed in direction 228. As shown in FIG. 21, display 214 may include display structures 230. Display structures 230 may be formed from organic light-emitting diode structures, backlit

electrophoretic display structures, backlight electrowetting display structures, or backlight liquid crystal display (LCD) display layers (as examples) . For example, display structures 230 may include liquid crystal display structures such as a color filter layer, a thin- film transistor layer, and a layer of liquid crystal material that is formed between the color filter layer and the thin-film transistor layer.

Display structures 230 may include an array of display pixels 232. When controlled using display driver circuitry, the array of display pixels 232 may be used in presenting images to a viewer such as viewer 242, who is viewing display 214 in direction 240. Circuitry such as display driver circuitry and other display components that do not display images may be located in inactive edge region 236 of display 214. Region 236 may include, for example, a bead of sealant interposed between a color filter layer and a thin-film transistor layer, thin-film transistors (e.g., gate driver circuitry), and traces for providing display control signals to display pixels 232 (shown illustratively as structures 238).

Coherent fiber bundle 244 may have multiple fibers that convey light 234 from pixels 232 vertically upwards to display surface 246. Fiber bundle 244 is coherent in that images that are created by display pixels 232 are not scrambled or otherwise disturbed when passing through fiber bundle 244. Viewer 242 may therefore view satisfactory images on surface 246, including central portion C and edge portions E.

In central portion C of coherent fiber bundle 244, light 234B from display pixels 232B may be conveyed to surface 246 through fibers that extend parallel to one another along dimension Z. In edge regions E, coherent fiber bundle 244 may include fibers that guide light 234A from display pixels 232A to surface 246 along curved paths. The use of curved paths for the fibers in bundle 244 in edge regions E allows edge regions E to overlap inactive display regions 236 when display 214 is viewed in direction 240 by viewer 242, thereby presenting viewer 242 with a borderless display (i.e., a display in which inactive region width W2 of FIG. 20 is zero with respect to dimension Y and, if desired, with respect to dimension X) .

As shown in FIG. 21, for example, the curved nature of the fibers in portion E of coherent fiber bundle 244 may create an overhang that extends by an amount XD over inactive region 236. The amount XD may be sufficient to narrow the size of the inactive display region (region 222 of FIG. 20) in display 214 or may, as shown in FIG. 21, may be sufficient to completely cover inactive regions 236 so that display 214 is effectively borderless in dimension Y and, if desired, in dimension X.

Coherent fiber bundle 244 may be formed from a set of parallel fibers. The fibers may be formed from a clear material such as glass. Each fiber may have a core and a cladding. The index of refraction of the core may be greater than the index of refraction of the cladding to promote total internal reflection. Fibers may be heated and manipulated using stretching equipment and/or rollers or other pressing equipment. Glass particles or other binders may be used in binding individual fibers together to form fiber bundle 244. Using fabrication techniques such as these, the fibers in fiber bundle 244 may be positioned so as to follow straight paths (i.e., straight paths such as paths 234B of FIG. 21) or curved paths such as curved path 234A of FIG. 21.

The shape of surface 246 may be planar or may have a curved shape (e.g., along the opposing left and right edges of the display) , as illustrated by dotted line 246' of FIG. 21.

FIG. 22 is a perspective view of a portion of coherent fiber bundle 244 in a configuration in which fibers 244F have been shaped to form a curved surface such as surface 246' . Fibers 244F may have a circular cross- sectional shape on surface 246' (as an example) . In shapes such as circular or square shapes, a shape may be said to have a 1:1 aspect ratio (width versus length) . In elongated shapes such as rectangles or ovals, the aspect ratio of the shape may be different (e.g., 1:3, etc.) . In fiber bundle 244, the aspect ratio of the area of the fibers may be constant or may change between the upper and lower surfaces of the bundle.

FIG. 23 is a perspective view of portion of coherent fiber bundle 244 in a configuration in which fibers 244F have been shaped to form a flat surface such as surface 246'.

FIG. 24 is a top view of fiber bundle 244 showing fibers 244F on top surface 246 when viewed in direction 240 of FIG. 23. As shown in FIG. 24, coherent fiber bundle upper surface 246 may have fibers 244F having rectangular areas with an aspect ratio of about 4:1 (e.g., an aspect ratio greater than 1.5:1, greater than 2:1, greater than 3:1, or greater than 5:1) . As shown in FIG. 25, coherent fiber bundle lower surface 252 may have fibers 244F that have square areas or areas of other shapes with a 1:1 aspect ratio (e.g., an aspect ratio less than 1.5:1, less than 2:1, less than 3:1, or less than 5:1) . By using fiber bundles with changing aspect ratios, it is possible to transition between a relatively smaller area such as lower surface area 252 of coherent bundle 244 of FIG. 23 to a relatively larger area such as upper surface area 246 of coherent bundle 244 of FIG. 23 within edge region E, while retaining a planar shape to upper surface 246. This allows display 214 to have a planar surface that extends from edge to edge.

As shown in the perspective view of FIG. 26, in portions E, fibers 244F' may have a rectangular cross- sectional area (i.e., elongated aspect ratios), whereas in central region C, the surfaces of fibers 244F' ' may have 1:1 aspect ratios (e.g., aspect ratios that are less than the aspect ratios of fibers 244F' ) .

FIG. 27 is a perspective view of device 10 showing how display 214 may have edges E that extend laterally in dimension Y so as to create overhang XD in dimension Y. This allows display 214 to be borderless or nearly borderless in dimension Y. Device housing 212 may have sidewall edges 212' that run parallel to each along longitudinal axis LG of device 10 between lower end 202 and upper end 200 of device 10. If desired, left and right edges 254 may overlap edges 212' of housing 212 in device 10, so that display 214 appears borderless in dimension Y.

In dimension X, inactive portions 236 of display structures 230 (e.g., a thin-film transistor layer and/or other layers in display 214) may be used to accommodate components 238 such as driver integrated circuits, flexible printed circuit cable attachment patterns, or traces for distributing display control signals to

transistors in the active portion of the display.

Inactive portions 236 may also extend under edges E of fiber bundle 244. In this portion of inactive portions

236, thin-film transistor circuitry (e.g., for gate driver circuits) , liquid crystal display sealant beads, and other inactive structures may be formed on display layers 230.

FIG. 28 is a cross-sectional side view of coherent fiber bundle 244 showing how multiple fibers 244F may be associated with each display pixel 232. In regions such as edge regions El, E2, and E3, the shape of the surface area of each fiber 244F may be elongated (with an aspect ratio of 2:1 or more, as an example), as shown in FIG. 24. Regions El, E2, and E3 are associated

respectively with display pixels 232-1, 232-2, and 232-3. For example, the light produced by pixel 232-3 may be displayed in region E3 after being conveyed through the fibers 244F that overlap pixel 232-3. The use of larger aspect ratios for the surfaces of fibers 244F in regions El, E2, and E3 allows upper surface 246 of display 214 to be planar (if desired) . In central regions such as CI and C2, fibers 244F may extend vertically upwards. There is some loss of display resolution in regions El, E2, and E3 relative to in regions CI and C2, but the information displayed in edge regions El, E2, and E3 of display 214 may often contain solid colors or other low-information- content material, where the loss of resolution is

immaterial to the performance of display 214.

FIG. 29 is a top view of an illustrative display pixel showing how multiple fibers 244F may be associated with a single pixel. Each display pixel such as display pixel 232 of FIG. 29 may be associated with about N x N fibers 244F. As an example, a set of about 10-50 fibers 244F may be used to route light from each display pixel to the surface of coherent fiber bundle 246. Configurations in which a single fiber is associated with each display pixel or in which other numbers of fibers are associated with each display pixel may also be used, if desired.

As shown in FIG. 30, multiple coherent fiber bundles such as bundles 244A, 244B, and 244C may be mounted adjacent to each other so that their peripheral edges (e.g., their left and right edges) may mate with each other, forming surface 246 of display 214 from multiple bundle surfaces. Inactive regions 236 on display layer 230 may be used for mounting components 238.

A system for forming a coherent fiber bundle of the type shown in FIG. 23 is shown in FIG. 31. Initially, fiber bundle 244X may have fibers 244F that are aligned along dimension 270. Heated rollers 256 may be used to constrain fiber bundle 244X with respect to dimension 272. Rollers 258 and 260 may be used to squeeze fiber bundle 244X in dimension 274. For example, roller 260 may be moved along directions 264 between position 262 and the position shown in FIG. 31 in order to apply pressure to fiber bundle 244X as fiber bundle 244X is moved through the roller system in direction 266. Upon exiting the rollers in direction 78, fiber bundle 244 may have the appearance shown in the bottom portion of FIG. 31 in which upper surface 246 has a larger width WL than lower surface width WS (see, e.g., fiber bundle 244 of FIG. 23).

In accordance with an embodiment, a display is provided that includes display structures having an array of display pixels surrounded by at least some inactive display regions, and a fiber bundle on the display

structures, the fiber bundle includes fibers with cross- sectional areas of varying aspect ratios.

In accordance with another embodiment, each display pixel provides light to a respective plurality of the fibers .

In accordance with another embodiment, a portion of the fiber bundle includes an upper surface and a lower surface, the fibers have first cross-sectional areas on the upper surface and second cross-sectional areas on the lower surface, and the first cross-sectional areas have a larger aspect ratio than the second cross-sectional areas.

In accordance with another embodiment, the upper surface includes a planar surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, the fiber bundle includes an edge portion with a curved surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, the fibers include glass fibers.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display structures include liquid crystal display

structures .

In accordance with another embodiment, the display structures include organic light-emitting diode display structures.

In accordance with another embodiment, the fiber bundle includes a central portion in which fibers run vertically through the fiber bundle in straight lines and the fiber bundle includes at least one edge portion in which the fibers run along curved paths. In accordance with an embodiment, an electronic device is provided that includes a housing having first and second ends and having first and second sidewall edges that run parallel to each other between the first and second ends, display structures that includes an array of display pixels, and a fiber bundle on the array of display pixels, the fiber bundle has edge portions that overlap the first and second sidewall edges.

In accordance with another embodiment, the fiber bundle has a lower surface adjacent to the display

structures and an upper surface, the display pixels are configured to display an image, and the fiber bundle is configured to route the image from the lower surface to the upper surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, each display pixel provides light to a respective plurality of the fibers in the fiber bundle.

In accordance with another embodiment, the fiber bundle includes an upper surface and a lower surface, the fibers have first cross-sectional areas on a portion of the upper surface and second cross-sectional areas on a portion of the lower surface, and the first cross- sectional areas have a larger aspect ratio than the second cross-sectional areas.

In accordance with another embodiment, the upper surface includes a planar surface and at least some fibers in the fiber bundle have third cross-sectional areas on at least some of the upper surface and fourth cross-sectional areas on at least some of the lower surface, and the third cross-sectional areas and the fourth cross-sectional areas are equal . In accordance with another embodiment, the fiber bundle includes a central portion with a planar surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, the fiber bundle has a first edge portion that runs along one side of the central portion and a second edge portion that runs along an opposing side of the central portion and the first and second edge portions have curved surfaces.

In accordance with an embodiment, a display is provided that includes a display layer that includes an array of display pixels, at least one component in an inactive edge portion of the display layer, and a fiber bundle having bent fibers that overlap the component.

In accordance with another embodiment, the fiber bundle includes a first surface and a second surface, the fibers have first cross-sectional areas on the first surface and second cross-sectional areas on the second surface, and the first cross-sectional areas have a larger aspect ratio than the second cross-sectional areas.

In accordance with another embodiment, the fiber bundle is configured so that second surface is adjacent to the array of display pixels.

In accordance with another embodiment, the first surface is planar.

In accordance with another embodiment, the fiber bundle has first and second lateral dimensions and has edges that protrude outward in the first lateral dimension and not the second lateral dimension.

An electronic device may be provided with a display having one or more layers of bundled fiber optic light guide structures. The display may include an array of display pixels that generate display light of a given color for the display. The display may be provided with a first layer of bundled fiber optic light guide structures that passes light from the display pixels to a second fiber optic bundle layer. The second fiber optic bundle layer may pass the light from the first fiber optic bundle layer to the outer surface of the display to be viewed by a user of the electronic device. A bundled fiber optic layer may also be referred to herein as a fiber optic bundle layer, a fiber bundle layer, an optical fiber layer, a bundled optical fiber layer, a layer of optical fibers, an array of optical fibers, fiber optic layers, etc .

An illustrative electronic device of the type that may be provided with a display having layers of bundled fiber optic light guide structures is shown in

FIG. 32. Electronic device 10 may be a computer such as a computer that is integrated into a display such as a computer monitor, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a somewhat smaller portable device such as a wrist-watch device, pendant device, or other wearable or miniature device, a cellular telephone, a media player, a tablet computer, a gaming device, a navigation device, a computer monitor, a television, or other electronic equipment.

As shown in FIG. 32, device 10 may include a display such as display 314. Display 314 may be a touch screen that incorporates capacitive touch electrodes or other touch sensor components or may be a display that is not touch sensitive. Display 314 may include image pixels formed from liquid crystal display (LCD) components or other suitable display pixel structures such as organic light emitting diode (OLED) structures. Arrangements in which display 314 is formed using liquid crystal display pixels are sometimes described herein as an example. This is, however, merely illustrative. Any suitable type of display technology may be used in forming display 314, if desired.

Device 10 may have a housing such as housing 312. Housing 312, which may sometimes be referred to as a case, may be formed of plastic, glass, ceramics, fiber composites, metal (e.g., stainless steel, aluminum, etc.), other suitable materials, or a combination of any two or more of these materials.

Housing 312 may be formed using a unibody configuration in which some or all of housing 312 is machined or molded as a single structure or may be formed using multiple structures (e.g., an internal frame

structure, one or more structures that form exterior housing surfaces, etc.).

If desired, housing 312 may have multiple parts. For example, housing 312 may have an upper portion and a lower portion coupled to the upper portion using a hinge that allows the lower portion to rotate about rotational axis relative to the upper portion. Electronic components such as a keyboard and/or a touch pad may also be mounted in housing 312, if desired.

Display 314 may have an active area such as active area AA and an inactive area such as area IA.

Active area AA may be, for example, a rectangular region in the center of display 314 in which display pixels are actively used to display images for a user of device 10. Inactive area IA may be devoid of active display pixels. In the example of FIG. 32, inactive area IA has the shape of a rectangular ring, surrounding the periphery of active area AA of display 314. Circuitry and other components may sometimes be formed in inactive area IA. To hide the circuitry and other components from view by a user of device 10, inactive area IA may sometimes be provided with an opaque mask. The opaque mask can be formed from an opaque material such as a black material or may be formed from opaque masking materials of other colors.

Configurations in which the opaque masking material in display 314 has a black appearance are sometimes described herein as an example. This is, however, merely

illustrative. Opaque masking layers in device 10 may have any suitable colors.

In the example of FIG. 32, device 10 has been implemented using a housing that is sufficiently small to fit within a user's hand (i.e., device 10 of FIG. 32 may be a handheld electronic device such as a cellular

telephone) . Display 314 may have openings (e.g., openings in inactive region IA or active region AA of display 314) such as an opening to accommodate button 322 and an opening to accommodate speaker port 324.

As shown in the cross-sectional end view of FIG. 33, display 314 may include one or more display layers 332 for generating colored light for display 314 and one or more layers of bundled fiber optic light guide structures (optical fiber layers) such as fiber optic layers 328 and 330. Display layers 332 may include layers such as color filter layers, transistor layers, backlight layers, reflective layers, polarizer layers, adhesive layers, and layers of liquid crystal material. Fiber optic layers 328 and 330 may be formed from glass, plastic, or other suitable material. Fiber optic layers 328 and 330 may each include multiple fiber optic light guide structures such as optical fibers that guide light from display layers 332 to outer surface 334 of display 314. Fiber optic bundle layers 328 and 330 may be arranged so that light that is generated in display layers 332 appears to a user such as user 341 of device 10 to have been generated at surface 334.

If desired, display 314 may include a light diffusion layers interposed between layer 328 and layer 330.

As shown in FIG. 33, circuitry and other

components may such as components 326 may be formed behind portions of layers 328 and/or 330. Components 326 may, for example, include a display driver integrated circuit that generates control signals for operating display pixels in the display. Device 10 may include additional circuitry such as component 360. Components such as component 360 may include batteries, printed circuit boards, flexible printed circuits, buttons, switches, microphones, speakers, compasses, or other circuitry. If desired, components 326 may be coupled to additional components 360 (e.g., using a flexible printed circuit).

As shown in FIG. 33, surface 334 of outer fiber bundle layer 330 may form an outer surface of electronic device 10. In configurations in which surface 334 forms an outer surface of device 10, layer 330 may be formed from a material that is sufficiently strong to form a portion of a protective outer enclosure (e.g., an

enclosure formed by housing 312 and layer 330 within which components 326 and 360 are mounted) for device 10. However, this is merely illustrative. If desired, outer surface 334 of layer 330 may be covered by one or more coatings or other protective materials that form a protective outer layer for device 10.

In some configurations, in order to hide

components 326 from view by user 341 of device 10, inactive area IA may sometimes be provided with an opaque mask such as a black mask. This is, however, merely illustrative. Opaque masking layers in device 10 may have colors other than black or components 326 may be hidden from view using other configurations.

For example, if desired, display 314 may be configured so as to minimize or eliminate the size of inactive region IA along one or more edges of active region AA (FIG. 32) . For example, an outer fiber optic bundle layer such as layer 330 may include angled fiber optic light guide structures that guide some of display light from display layers 332 located in a relatively central portion of display 314 toward one of edges 338 of layer 330 (i.e., in a direction that is different from the Z-direction of FIG. 33 in the X-Z plane) . In this way, display 314 may be provided with the ability to display light on portions of surface 334 that are nearer to edges 338 than edges 340 are to edges 338 while allowing space for components 326 along one or more edges 340 of layers 332, thereby reducing or eliminating inactive region IA.

Layer 330 may also include vertical fiber optic light guide structures that guide some of display light from display layers 332 located in a central portion of display 314 vertically to surface 334 in a direction that is parallel to the Z-direction of FIG. 33. However, this is merely illustrative. If desired, layer 330 may include only vertical fiber optic light guide structures that guide display light from display layers 332 vertically to surface 334 in a direction that is parallel to the Z- direction of FIG. 33 without including any angled fiber optic light guide structures.

Display 314 may be, for example, a liquid crystal display such as display 314 of FIG. 34. Display 314 may include an array of display pixels 300. Each pixel 300 may be used to control the light intensity associated with a portion of the display.

Display 314 may have a layer of liquid crystal material such as liquid crystal material 335 that is sandwiched between a pair of polarizers such as upper polarizer 351 and lower polarizer 329. An array of electrodes may be controlled by the thin-film transistor circuitry in a thin-film transistor layer in display 314. As shown in FIG. 34, for example, display 314 may have an array of electrodes and associated thin-film transistor circuits such as thin-film transistor circuitry 234 on thin-transistor substrate layer 331 (e.g., a glass substrate) . Thin-film transistor circuitry 234 may include thin-film transistor circuitry such as amorphous silicon transistor circuitry or polysilicon transistor circuitry. Thin film transistor circuitry 234 may also include interconnect lines to connect electrodes formed from conductive materials such as indium tin oxide and metal to thin-film structures such as thin-film

transistors .

The electrodes in thin-film transistor circuitry

234 may be used to produce electric fields that control the orientation of liquid crystals in liquid crystal layer 335. Backlight unit 327 may be used to produce backlight 54 for display 314. Backlight 54 may pass through display 314 in vertical direction Z. By controlling the

orientation of the liquid crystals in layer 335, the polarization of backlight 54 may be controlled. In combination with the presence of polarizer layers 329 and 351, the ability to control the polarization of the light passing through individual pixels 300 of liquid crystal material 335 provides display 314 with the ability to display images for viewer 341 viewing display in a

direction such as direction 358.

Backlight unit 327 may include a light source such as a light-emitting diode array for producing

backlight 54. Polarizers such as polarizer 329 and polarizer 351 may be formed from thin polymer films. For example, polarizer 351 may be formed from polymer film 48 and an associated adhesive layer such as optically clear adhesive layer 46.

If desired, display 314 may be provided with layers for reducing fingerprints (e.g., a smudge-resistant coating in a touch-sensitive display) , anti-scratch coatings, an antireflection coating, a layer for reducing the impact of static electricity such as indium tin oxide electrostatic discharge protection layer 44 of FIG. 36, or other layers of material. The display layers that are used in the illustrative configuration of FIG. 33 are merely illustrative.

Display 314 may include a display layer such as color filter layer 337. Color filter layer 337 may include a color filter layer substrate such as substrate 366. Substrate 366 and the substrate for thin-film transistor layer 331 may be formed from clear layers of material such as glass or plastic.

Color filter layer 337 may include an array of color filter elements 42 formed on substrate 366. Color filter elements 42 may include, for example, red elements R, green elements G, and blue elements (not shown) . The array of color filter elements in color filter layer 337 may be used to provide display 314 with the ability to display color images. Each electrode 234 in thin-film transistor layer 331 may be provided with a respective overlapping color filter element 42.

Adjacent color filter elements 42 may be

separated by interposed portions of opaque masking

material 372. Opaque masking material 372 may be formed from a dark substance such as a polymer that contains a black pigment and is therefore sometimes referred to as a black mask, black masking layer, black pigmented layer, or black masking material. Illustrative polymeric materials for forming black masking layer 372 include acrylic-based and polyimide-based photoresists. An illustrative black pigment that may be used for black masking layer 372 is amorphous carbon (e.g., carbon black).

In active region AA, black mask 372 may be formed from a grid of relatively thin lines (sometimes referred to as a black matrix) . The black matrix may have a pattern of openings such as an array of rectangular holes for receiving color filter elements 42. In some configurations, in inactive region IA, black masking material may be used in forming a peripheral black mask that serves as a black border for display 314. The black mask in inactive area IA may have a rectangular ring shape that surrounds a central rectangular active area AA (as an example) . However, this is merely illustrative. If desired, in configurations in which layer 330 includes angled fiber optic light guide structures that guide some of display light from display layers 332 toward one of edges 338 of layer 330, display 314 may be provided without a peripheral black mask.

As shown in FIG. 34, fiber bundle layer 328 may be attached to polarizer layer 48 using an adhesive such as optically clear adhesive layer 350. Fiber bundle layer 328 may be formed from plastic, glass, or other suitable material in which fiber optic light guide structures may be formed. Fiber bundle layer 328 may include one or more fiber optic light guide structures (optical fibers) associated with each pixel 300. As examples, fiber bundle layer 328 may include four, nine, twenty five, thirty six, forty nine, sixty four, eight one, more than 81, more than four, less than nine or less than four fiber optic light guide structures that receive display light from each pixel 300.

In one suitable configuration which is sometimes described herein as an example, fiber bundle layer 328 may include nine fiber optic light guide structures formed at least partially over each pixel 300. In this way, fiber optic light guide structures in layer 328 may oversample pixels 300 so that little or no display light from each display pixel is lost.

Fiber optic light guide structures may be characterized by a numerical aperture. The numerical aperture is related to the range of incidence angles that are accepted into a fiber optic light guide structure and the range of output angles at which light can be output from a fiber optic light guide structure. Fiber optic light guide structures having a relatively high numerical aperture accept and emit light in a relatively wide range of respective incidence and output angles. For example, a fiber optic light guide structure having a numerical aperture of one accepts and emits light from a full hemisphere of respective incidence and output angles. A fiber optic light guide structure having a numerical aperture of less than one accepts and emits light from less than a full hemisphere of respective incidence and output angles.

Fiber optic light guide structures in layer 328 may be provided that have numerical apertures that are less than one (e.g., having a relatively small range of acceptable incidence angles) so that light from only one given display pixel is transmitted into a fiber optic light guide structure associated with that given pixel.

Display 314 may include a light diffusing layer such as light diffusing layer 352 formed between fiber bundle layer 328 and fiber bundle layer 330. Display light from pixels 300 that has passed through fiber optic light guide structures in layer 328 may emerge from layer 328 with a relatively narrow range of emission angles due to the relatively low numerical aperture of fiber optic light guide structures in layer 328. Diffusing layer 352 may isotropize the display light emerging from layer 328 so that light from random angles is transmitted in to fiber optic light guide structures in layer 330.

Light diffusing layer 352 may be formed from an adhesive material infused with light redirecting

structures such as metallic particles (e.g., metallic spheres) . The metallic spheres may be characterized by a diameter that is chosen to optimize the diffusion of light that exits layer 328. However, this is merely

illustrative. If desired, light diffusing layer may be formed from a portion of layer 328 and/or a portion of layer 330. For example, a surface of layer 328 that interfaces with layer 330 may be roughed (e.g.,

sandblasted) so that surface features on that surface cause light that emerges from fiber optic light guide structures in layer 328 to be diffused into a

hemispherical distribution of emission angles before passing into layer 330.

Fiber bundle layer 330 may be formed from plastic, glass, or other suitable materials in which fiber optic light guide structures may be formed. Fiber bundle layer 330 may be attached to layer 328 using adhesive associated with diffusion layer 352 or may be fused to layer 328 by heating and compressing layers 328 and 330.

Fiber bundle layer 330 may include one or more fiber optic light guide structures (optical fibers) that receive display light from each fiber optic light guide structure in layer 328. As examples, fiber bundle layer 330 may include four, nine, twenty five, thirty six, forty nine, sixty four, eight one, more than 81, more than four, less than nine or less than four fiber optic light guide structures formed at least partially over each fiber optic light guide structure in layer 328.

In one suitable configuration which is sometimes described herein as an example, fiber bundle layer 330 may include nine fiber optic light guide structures formed over each fiber optic light guide structure in layer 328. In this way, fiber optic light guide structures in layer 330 may oversample fiber optic light guide structures in layer 328 so that little or no display light from each display pixel is lost between layer 328 and layer 330.

Fiber optic light guide structures in layer 330 may be provided that have numerical apertures that are substantially equal to one (e.g., having a full

hemispherical range of acceptable incidence angles and emission angles) so that all of the display light received from layer 328 is accepted into fiber optic light guide structures in layer 330 and so that a viewer such as user 341 viewing display 314 at any angle is able to see the display light emerging from layer 330. The gap between layer 328 and layer 330 may be small enough to minimize cross contamination of display light from neighboring pixels .

As shown in FIG. 34, layer 330 may include portions 370 that extend beyond edges 340 of display layers 332. If desired, layer 330 may include angled fiber optic light guide structures that extend from a central portion of layer 330 (e.g., a portion of layer 330 that is located interior to planes defined by edges 340 of display layers 332) into portions 370. Angled fiber optic light guide structures that extend into portions 370 may guide display light from display layers 332 that has passed through layer 328 into portions 370 to be viewed by user 341.

If desired, fiber bundle layer 328 and light diffusing layer 352 may include respective extended portions 328' and 352' that extend beyond edges 340 of display layers 332.

The cross-sectional side view of fiber bundle layer 328 of FIG. 35 shows how surface features on a surface such as surface 371 of layer 328 may be used to form light diffusing layer 352. As shown in FIG. 35, surface 371 of layer 328 may include surface features 374. Surface features 374 may be formed by spraying or

otherwise depositing material onto surface 374 or may be formed by roughing (e.g., sanding, or sand blasting) surface 374 to form surface roughness on surface 374.

Light diffusing layer 352 may be formed from features 374 on surface 371.

Light that enters a fiber optic light guide structure such as fiber optic light guide 380 at an angle such as angle 376 may be transmitted within fiber optic light guide 380 (i.e., by total internal reflection of the light within optical fiber 380) into light diffusing layer 352. As shown in FIG. 35, diffusing layer 352 may cause light to be released from surface 371 in a wide range of emission angles (as indicated by arrows 378) into fiber optic light guide structures such as fiber optic light guide 390 in layer 330.

The cross sectional side view of fiber bundle layer 328 of FIG. 36 shows how an adhesive layer having light redirecting structures may be used to form light diffusing layer 352. As shown in FIG. 36, adhesive material such as optically clear adhesive material 382 may be formed on surface 371 of layer 328. Light redirecting structures 384 (e.g., metallic spheres) may be provided in adhesive material 382. Light that enters a fiber optic light guide structure such as fiber optic light guide 380 at an angle such as angle 376 may be transmitted within fiber optic light guide 380 (i.e., by total internal reflection of the light within fiber 380) into light diffusing layer 352 . As shown in FIG. 36, structures 384 in diffusing layer 352 may cause light to be released from diffusing layer 352 in a wide range of emission angles (as indicated by arrows 378) into fiber optic light guide structures such as optical fiber 390 in layer 330.

FIG. 37 is a top view of a portion of display 314 showing how multiple fiber optic light guide

structures 380 (i.e., light guide structures in layer 328) may be used to oversample each display pixel 300 of display 314 and how multiple fiber optic light guide structures 390 (i.e., light guide structures in layer 330) may be used to oversample each fiber optic light guide structure 380.

In the example of FIG. 37, each display pixel is nine-times oversampled by fiber optic light guide

structures 380 and each fiber optic light guide structure 380 is nine-times oversampled by fiber optic light guide structures 390. This is merely illustrative. Each display pixel 300 may be sampled by any number of fiber optic light guide structures 380 and each fiber optic light guide structure 380 may be sampled by any number of fiber optic light guide structures 390.

As shown in FIG. 37, fiber optic light guide structures 380 may be characterized by a lateral size such as diameter DL and fiber optic light guide structures 390 may be characterized by a lateral size such as diameter DH. However this is merely illustrative. Fiber optic light guide structures 380 and fiber optic light guide structures 390 may have any suitable cross-sectional shape (e.g., square, rectangular, circular, oblong, etc.) characterized by any suitable lateral dimension. Diameter DH of fiber optic light guide structures 390 may be substantially smaller than diameter DL fiber optic light guide structures 380.

As examples, diameter DL may be between 25 and 75 microns, between 40 and 60 microns, between 48 and 352 microns, between 10 and 50 microns, between 50 and 100 microns, more than 25 microns, or less than 100 microns. As examples, diameter DH may be between 3 and 9 microns, between 5 and 7 microns, between 0 and 10 microns, between 5 and 15 microns, between 6 and 10 microns, more than 1 micron, or less than 15 microns.

FIG. 38 is a cross-sectional end view of a portion of display 314 showing how fiber bundle layer 330 may be used to guide display light from a central portion such as portion 391 of display 314 to an edge portion such as portion 370 of display 314.

As shown in FIG. 38, some of fiber optic light guide structures 390 such as fiber optic light guide structures 390A may be angled with respect to surface 334 of layer 330 so that display light that has travelled from a display pixel such as pixel 300 through one or more of fiber optic light guide structures 380 may be guided from central portion 391 toward edge portion 370 of display 314.

Some of fiber optic light guide structures 390 such as fiber optic light guide structures 390V may be vertical fiber optic light guide structures that extend vertically (e.g., along direction Z of FIG. 38) from an inner surface of layer 330 to outer surface 334 of layer 330. In this way, some display light that has been generated in display layers 332 in central portion 391 of display 314 may be emitted from surface 334 in edge portion 370 of display 314 and some display light that has been generated in display layers 332 in central portion 391 of display 314 may be emitted from surface 334 in central portion 391 of display 314.

Display 314 may be provided with a gap such as gap 394 between layer 328 and display layers 332. Gap 394 may be an air gap or may be filled with some of display layers 332. For example, gap 394 may be filled with polarizer layer 351, optically clear adhesive layer 350, indium-tin-oxide layer 44 (see FIG. 33) or other display layers. Gap 394 may have a height H. Height H may, as an example, be between 1.0 and 1.5 mm. Each fiber optic light guide structure 380 in layer 328 may be

characterized by an acceptance angle 392 (i.e., a range of angles of incidence from which light from display pixels 300 is transmitted into fiber optic light guide structures 380) that corresponds to the numerical aperture of that fiber optic light guide structure 380.

As examples, fiber optic light guide structures

380 may have numerical apertures between 0.3 and 0.4, between 0.2 and 0.5, between 0.3 and 0.5, between 0.34 and 0.36, between 0.34 and 0.4, between 0.3 and 0.36, less than 0.6, or greater than 0.2. By proving fiber optic light guide structures 380 with numerical apertures in one of these ranges, display light entering each fiber optic light guide structure 380 may be received from only one associated display pixel 300.

The configuration of FIG. 38 in which fiber bundle layer 330 is used to guide display light from a central portion of display 314 to an edge portion of display 314 is merely illustrative. As shown in FIG. 39, fiber bundle layer 330 may be provided with vertical fiber optic light guide structures 390V without including any angled fiber optic light guide structures.

If desired, in configurations in which fiber bundle layer 330 is provided with vertical fiber optic light guide structures 390V without including any angled fiber optic light guide structures, layer 330 may or may not include an extended edge portion 330' that extends beyond edge 340 of display layers 332. In configurations in which fiber bundle layer 330 is provided with only vertical fiber optic light guide structures 390V and layer 330 is provided with an extended portion 330', opaque masking material such as black mask 372 may be formed in an inner surface of layer 330. In this way, display 314 may be provided with a peripheral inactive region and a display with the ability to generate low-depth or zero- depth images that appear to be displayed on surface 334 of display 314 (e.g., on an outer surface of device 10 or on a surface that is nearer to the outer surface of device 10 than images displayed by conventional displays that do not have stacked fiber bundle layers.

FIG. 40 is a cross-sectional end view of a portion of display 314 showing how display light may be emitted from each fiber optic light guide structure 390 in a substantially hemispherical distribution of emission angles so that a user may view display 314 from a wide range of viewing angles. As shown in FIG. 40, display light that is emitted in a particular direction such as direction 376 from pixel 300 that is within acceptance cone 392 of a particular fiber optic light guide structure 380 may be accepted into that fiber optic light guide structure .

As indicated by arrows 102, the display light that has been accepted into fiber optic light guide structure 380 may be internally reflected from inner surfaces of fiber optic light guide structure 380 until being emitted into light diffusion layer 352. As

indicated by arrows 376 and as described above in

connection with FIGS. 35 and 36, the display light may be emitted from fiber optic light guide structure 380 in randomly distributed direction (e.g., as if being emitted from a Lambertian light source) . The display light may then be transmitted into one or more associated fiber optic light guide structures 390.

Fiber optic light guide structures 390 may be configured to accept display light from a full hemisphere of acceptance angles (e.g., by providing fiber optic light guide structures 390 with a numerical aperture close to one) . As examples, fiber optic light guide structures 390 (e.g., structures 390V and/or 390A) may have numerical apertures that are greater than 0.9, greater than 0.95, greater than 0.98, or greater than 0.99. Display light may therefore be emitted from each fiber optic light guide structure 390 at surface 334 of display 314 in a full hemisphere of emission angles (as indicated by arrows 306) . In this way, viewers of display 314 such as users 341-1, 341-2, 341-3, and 341-4 viewing display 314 at viewing angles such as respective viewing angles 358-1, 358-2, 358-3, and 358-4 may be provided with a high quality image.

During manufacturing of display 314, fiber bundle layer 330 may be provided with angled fiber optic light guide structures 390A in an edge portion of layer 330 and vertical fiber optic light guide structures 390V in a central portion of layer 330 as shown in FIGS. 41, 42, and 43.

As shown in FIG. 41, a substrate such as

substrate 310 may be provided with substantially vertical fiber optic light guide structures 311 (e.g., parallel vertical optical fibers) . Substrate 310 may, for example, be a glass substrate having bundled optical fibers 311.

As shown in FIG. 42, substrate 310 may be heated and allowed to slump (e.g., bend) into a curved

configuration. An inner portion such as portion 313 of slumped substrate 310 may be used to form a fiber optic bundle layer such as layer 330 of display 314 having both vertical and angled fiber optic light guide structures 390V and 390A.

As shown in FIG. 43, portion 313 of substrate 310 may be cut away from the rest of substrate 310 to form fiber optic bundle layer 330 having vertical fiber optic light guide structures 390V in central portion 318 of substrate 330 and angled fiber optic light guide

structures 390A in edge portions 316 of substrate 330. After cutting substrate 330 from substrate 310, substrate 330 may be attached to an additional fiber optic bundle layer such as layer 328 (see, e.g., FIG. 33) to form a portion of display 314 of device 10.

In accordance with an embodiment, a display is provided that includes a plurality of display layers that generate display light for the display, a first substrate attached to the display layers that includes a plurality of first optical fibers, and a second substrate attached to the first substrate that includes a plurality of second optical fibers.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display layers include a plurality of display pixels that generate the display light, at least one of the plurality of first optical fibers is configured to pass the display light generated by an associated one of the plurality of display pixels into at least one of the plurality of second optical fibers.

In accordance with another embodiment, each of the plurality of first optical fibers has a first common numerical aperture, each of the plurality of second optical fibers has a second common numerical aperture, and the first numerical aperture is smaller than the second numerical aperture.

In accordance with another embodiment, each of the plurality of first optical fibers has a common

diameter, each of the plurality of second optical fibers has a second common diameter and the first diameter is larger than the second diameter.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes a light diffusing layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate.

In accordance with another embodiment, the light diffusing layer includes surface features on a surface of the first substrate.

In accordance with another embodiment, the second substrate is fused to the surface of the first substrate.

In accordance with another embodiment, the light diffusing layer includes an optically clear adhesive and light redirecting structures in the optically clear adhesive .

In accordance with another embodiment, the light redirecting structures include metallic particles.

In accordance with another embodiment, the plurality of display layers includes a light polarizing layer and the first substrate is attached to the light polarizing layer.

In accordance with another embodiment, the first substrate includes glass.

In accordance with another embodiment, the second substrate includes glass.

In accordance with an embodiment, a display is provided that includes an array of light generating elements that generate display light, a first array of fiber optic light guide structures formed over the array of light generating elements, and a second array of fiber optic light guide structures formed over the first array of fiber optic light guide structures, the display light generated by the array of light generating elements passes through the first array of fiber optic light guide

structures and through the second array of fiber optic light guide structures.

In accordance with another embodiment, the first array of fiber optic light guide structures includes a plurality of fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the light generating elements.

In accordance with another embodiment, the second array of fiber optic light guide structures

includes a plurality of fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the first fiber optic light guide structures.

In accordance with another embodiment, the plurality of fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the light generating elements includes at least nine fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the light generating elements .

In accordance with another embodiment, the plurality of fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the first fiber optic light guide structures includes at least nine fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the first fiber optic light guide structures.

includes a substrate having first and second opposing surfaces, and a plurality of vertical fiber optic light guide structures that extend from the first surface to the second surface, each of the vertical fiber optic light guide structures is elongated along an axis that is perpendicular to the first and second surfaces.

includes a plurality of angled fiber optic light guide structures that extend from the first surface to the second surface, each of the angled fiber optic light guide structures is elongated along an axis that forms an angle other than ninety degrees with the first and second surfaces.

In accordance with another embodiment, the plurality of vertical fiber optic light guide structures are formed in a central portion of the display, the angled fiber optic light guide structures extend from the central portion of the display to edge portions of the display, and the angled fiber optic light guide structures guide at least some of the display light from the central portion of the display to the edge portions of the display.

In accordance with an embodiment, an electronic device is provided that includes a display having a thin- film transistor layer, a color filter layer, a layer of liquid crystal material interposed between the thin-film transistor layer and the color filter layer, and first and second bundled fiber optic layers, the color filter layer has an edge, the second bundled fiber optic layer has a portion that extends beyond the edge, and the second bundled fiber optic layer is configured to guide display light into the portion that extends beyond the edge.

In accordance with another embodiment, the electronic device includes display control circuitry mounted along the edge of the color filter layer and behind the portion of the second bundled fiber optic layer that extends beyond the edge.

Illustrative electronic devices that may be provided with displays having optical structures

configured to bend light are shown in FIGS. 44, 45, and 46.

FIG. 44 shows how electronic device 10 may have the shape of a laptop computer having upper housing 412A and lower housing 412B with components such as keyboard 416 and touchpad 418. Device 10 may have hinge structures 420 that allow upper housing 412A to rotate in directions 422 about rotational axis 424 relative to lower housing 412B. Display 414 may be mounted in upper housing 412A. Upper housing 412A, which may sometimes referred to as a display housing or lid, may be placed in a closed position by rotating upper housing 412A towards lower housing 412B about rotational axis 424.

FIG. 45 shows how electronic device 10 may be a handheld device such as a cellular telephone, music player, gaming device, navigation unit, or other compact device. In this type of configuration for device 10, housing 412 may have opposing front and rear surfaces. Display 414 may be mounted on a front face of housing 412. Display 414 may, if desired, have a display cover layer or other exterior layer that includes openings for components such as button 426. Openings may also be formed in a display cover layer or other display layer to accommodate a speaker port (see, e.g., speaker port 428 of FIG. 45) .

FIG. 46 shows how electronic device 10 may be a tablet computer. In electronic device 10 of FIG. 46, housing 412 may have opposing planar front and rear surfaces. Display 414 may be mounted on the front surface of housing 412. As shown in FIG. 46, display 414 may have a cover layer or other external layer with an opening to accommodate button 426 (as an example) .

The illustrative configurations for device 10 that are shown in FIGS. 44, 45, and 46 are merely

functionality of two or more of these devices, or other electronic equipment.

Housing 412 of device 10, which is sometimes referred to as a case, may be formed of materials such as plastic, glass, ceramics, carbon-fiber composites and other fiber-based composites, metal (e.g., machined aluminum, stainless steel, or other metals) , other

materials, or a combination of these materials. Device 10 may be formed using a unibody construction in which most or all of housing 412 is formed from a single structural element (e.g., a piece of machined metal or a piece of molded plastic) or may be formed from multiple housing structures (e.g., outer housing structures that have been mounted to internal frame elements or other internal housing structures) .

Display 414 may be a touch sensitive display that includes a touch sensor or may be insensitive to touch. Touch sensors for display 414 may be formed from an array of capacitive touch sensor electrodes, a resistive touch array, touch sensor structures based on acoustic touch, optical touch, or force-based touch technologies, or other suitable touch sensor components.

Displays for device 10 may, in general, include image pixels formed from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) , organic LEDs (OLEDs) , plasma cells, electrowetting pixels, electrophoretic pixels, liquid crystal display (LCD) components, or other suitable image pixel structures. In some situations, it may be desirable to use LCD components to form display 414, so configurations for display 414 in which display 414 is a liquid crystal display are

sometimes described herein as an example. It may also be desirable to provide displays such as display 414 with backlight structures, so configurations for display 414 that include a backlight unit may sometimes be described herein as an example. Other types of display technology may be used in device 10 if desired. The use of liquid crystal display structures and backlight structures in device 10 is merely illustrative.

A display cover layer may cover the surface of display 414 or a display layer such as a color filter layer or other portion of a display may be used as the outermost (or nearly outermost) layer in display 414. A display cover layer or other outer display layer may be formed from a transparent glass sheet, a clear plastic layer, or other transparent structures.

transistor layer) .

A schematic diagram of an illustrative configuration that may be used for electronic device 10 is shown in FIG. 47. As shown in FIG. 47, electronic device 10 may include control circuitry 429. Control circuitry 429 may include storage and processing circuitry for controlling the operation of device 10. Control circuitry 429 may, for example, include storage such as hard disk drive storage, nonvolatile memory (e.g., flash memory or other electrically-programmable-read-only memory

Control circuitry 429 may include processing circuitry based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, baseband processors, power management units, audio codec chips, application specific integrated circuits, etc.

Control circuitry 429 may be used to run

software on device 10, such as operating system software and application software. Using this software, control circuitry 429 may present information to a user of

electronic device 10 on display 414. Display 414 may contain an array of display pixels (e.g., liquid crystal display pixels) that are organized in rows and columns. Control circuitry 429 may be used to display content for a user of device 10 on the array of display pixels in display 414.

Input-output circuitry 430 may be used to allow data to be supplied to device 10 and to allow data to be provided from device 10 to external devices. Input-output circuitry 430 may include communications circuitry 432. Communications circuitry 432 may include wired

communications circuitry for supporting communications using data ports in device 10. Communications circuitry 432 may also include wireless communications circuits (e.g., circuitry for transmitting and receiving wireless radio-frequency signals using antennas) .

Input-output circuitry 430 may also include input-output devices 434. A user can control the

operation of device 10 by supplying commands through input-output devices 434 and may receive status

information and other output from device 10 using the output resources of input-output devices 434.

Input-output devices 434 may include sensors and status indicators 436 such as an ambient light sensor, a proximity sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a magnetic sensor, an accelerometer, and light-emitting diodes and other components for gathering information about the environment in which device 10 is operating and providing information to a user of device 10 about the status of device 10.

Audio components 438 may include speakers and tone generators for presenting sound to a user of device 10 and microphones for gathering user audio input.

Display 414 (e.g., the array of display pixels in display 414) may be used to present images for a user such as text, video, and still images. Sensors 436 may include a touch sensor array that is formed as one of the layers in display 414.

User input may be gathered using buttons and other input-output components 440 such as touch pad sensors, buttons, joysticks, click wheels, scrolling wheels, touch sensors such as sensors 436 in display 414, key pads, keyboards, vibrators, cameras, and other input- output components.

A cross-sectional side view of an illustrative configuration that may be used for display 414 of device 10 (e.g., for display 414 of the devices of FIG. 44, FIG. 45, or FIG. 46 or other suitable electronic devices) is shown in FIG. 48. As shown in FIG. 48, display 414 may include backlight structures such as backlight unit 442 for producing backlight 444. During operation, backlight 444 travels outwards (vertically upwards in dimension Z in the orientation of FIG. 48) and passes through display pixel structures in display layers 446. This illuminates any images that are being produced by the display pixels for viewing by a user. For example, backlight 444 may illuminate images on display layers 446 that are being viewed by viewer 448 in direction 450.

Display 414 may, if desired, have one or more optical structures that are located above display layers 446. For example, display 414 may have a display cover layer such as display cover layer 484. Display cover layer 484 may be formed from a layer of clear glass, a transparent sheet of plastic, or other transparent

structure. Display cover layer 484 may be mounted in housing 412 (e.g., using housing sidewalls) . During operation, light 444 may pass through the array of display pixels formed from display layers 446 and display cover layer 484 for viewing by user 448.

Display layers 446 may be mounted in chassis structures such as a plastic chassis structure and/or a metal chassis structure to form a display module for mounting in housing 412 or display layers 446 may be mounted directly in housing 412 (e.g., by stacking display layers 446 into a recessed portion in housing 412) .

Display layers 446 may form a liquid crystal display or may be used in forming displays of other types. Display layers 446 may sometimes be referred to as a display module, a display, or an array of display pixels. The image light (light 444) that passes through the array of display pixels is used in displaying content on display 414 for user 448.

In a configuration in which display layers 446 are used in forming a liquid crystal display, display layers 446 may include a liquid crystal layer such a liquid crystal layer 452. Liquid crystal layer 452 may be sandwiched between display layers such as display layers 458 and 456. Layers 456 and 458 may be interposed between lower polarizer layer 460 and upper polarizer layer 454.

Layers 458 and 456 may be formed from transparent substrate layers such as clear layers of glass or plastic. Layers 456 and 458 may be layers such as a thin-film transistor layer and/or a color filter layer. Conductive traces, color filter elements, transistors, and other circuits and structures may be formed on the

substrates of layers 458 and 456 (e.g., to form a thin- film transistor layer and/or a color filter layer) . Touch sensor electrodes may also be incorporated into layers such as layers 458 and 456 and/or touch sensor electrodes may be formed on other substrates.

With one illustrative configuration, layer 458 may be a thin-film transistor layer that includes an array of thin-film transistors and associated electrodes

(display pixel electrodes) for applying electric fields to liquid crystal layer 452 and thereby displaying images on display 414. Layer 456 may be a color filter layer that includes an array of color filter elements for providing display 414 with the ability to display color images. If desired, layer 458 may be a color filter layer and layer 456 may be a thin-film transistor layer.

During operation of display 414 in device 10, control circuitry 429 (e.g., one or more integrated circuits such as components 468 on printed circuit 466 of FIG. 48) may be used to generate information to be

displayed on display 414 (e.g., display data). The information to be displayed may be conveyed from circuitry 468 to display control circuitry such as display driver integrated circuit 462 using a signal path such as a signal path formed from conductive metal traces in

flexible printed circuit 464 (as an example) .

Display driver integrated circuit 462 may be mounted on thin-film-transistor layer driver ledge 82 or elsewhere in device 10. During operation of display 414, display driver circuitry 462 and/or other display control circuitry such as gate driver circuitry formed on

substrate 458 or coupled to substrate 458 may be used in controlling the array of display pixels in layers 446 (e.g., using a grid of vertical data lines and horizontal gate lines) .

A flexible printed circuit cable such as flexible printed circuit 464 may be used in routing signals between printed circuit 466 and thin-film- transistor layer 458. If desired, display driver

integrated circuit 462 may be mounted on printed circuit 466 or flexible printed circuit 464. Printed circuit 466 may be formed from a rigid printed circuit board (e.g., a layer of fiberglass-filled epoxy) or a flexible printed circuit (e.g., a flexible sheet of polyimide or other flexible polymer layer) .

Backlight structures 442 may include a light guide plate such as light guide plate 478. Light guide plate 478 may be formed from a transparent material such as clear glass or plastic. During operation of backlight structures 442, a light source such as light source 472 may generate light 474. Light source 472 may be, for example, an array of light-emitting diodes.

Light 474 from light source 472 may be coupled into edge surface 476 of light guide plate 478 and may be distributed in dimensions X and Y throughout light guide plate 478 due to the principal of total internal

reflection. Light guide plate 478 may include light- scattering features such as pits or bumps. The light- scattering features may be located on an upper surface and/or on an opposing lower surface of light guide plate 478.

Light 474 that scatters upwards in direction Z from light guide plate 478 may serve as backlight 444 for display 414. Light 474 that scatters downwards may be reflected back in the upwards direction by reflector 480. Reflector 480 may be formed from a reflective material such as a layer of white plastic or other shiny materials.

To enhance backlight performance for backlight structures 442, backlight structures 442 may include optical films 470. Optical films 470 may include diffuser layers for helping to homogenize backlight 444 and thereby reduce hotspots, compensation films for enhancing off-axis viewing, and brightness enhancement films (also sometimes referred to as turning films) for collimating backlight 444. Optical films 470 may overlap the other structures in backlight unit 442 such as light guide plate 478 and reflector 480. For example, if light guide plate 478 has a rectangular footprint in the X-Y plane of FIG. 48, optical films 470 and reflector 480 may have a matching rectangular footprint. Display layers 446 and the other display structures of FIG. 48 typically have rectangular shapes with four peripheral edges, but display

configurations with other shapes may be used in forming display 414 if desired.

As shown in FIG. 49, display structures 446 of display 414 may include a plurality of display pixels 486. Display pixels 486 may be organized in rows and columns. Display control circuitry may be used in controlling the operation of display pixels 486 using signal lines such as data lines 488 and gate lines 490. In liquid crystal displays, display pixels 486 may each contain an electrode for applying an electric field to an associated portion of liquid crystal layer 452 (FIG. 48) and a thin-film

(amorphous silicon or polysilicon) transistor for

controlling the magnitude of the signal applied to the electrode and therefore the magnitude of the electric field. In other types of displays, display pixels 486 may be formed from other types of structures (e.g., organic light-emitting diodes, etc.).

Lines 490 may be coupled to the gates of the thin-film transistors and may sometimes be referred to as gate lines. Lines 488 may be coupled to the sources of the thin-film transistors and may sometimes be referred to as source lines or data lines. Gate driver circuitry (e.g., thin-film transistor gate driver circuitry) may be coupled to gate lines 490. Display driver circuitry that produces data signals for lines 488 (e.g., a display driver integrated circuit) may be coupled to data lines 488.

Gate driver circuitry, one or more display driver integrated circuits, traces for distributing gate and data signals and other display control signals, and other display control circuitry may be formed in inactive region 4461 of display 414 and display structures 446. As an example, a display driver integrated circuit may be mounted along the upper segment of inactive region 4461, whereas gate driver thin-film circuitry may be formed along the left and right segments of inactive region 4461. During operation of display 414, display pixels 486 may display images for a user, so the portion of display structures 446 containing display pixels 486 may sometimes be referred to as active display structures or the active area of display 414. The metal traces and other display control circuit structures in inactive region 4461 do not display any images, so this portion of structures 446 may sometimes be referred to as inactive display structures.

Inactive region 4461 may form a border that surrounds some or all of active area 446A. For example, inactive region 4461 may have a rectangular ring shape of the type shown in FIG. 49 having opposing upper and lower border segments and left and right border segments. To provide display 414 with a borderless appearance, display 414 may be provided with optical structures such as glass layers with curved or angled surfaces. The optical structures may be configured to bend and therefore guide light that is emitted from the array of display pixels 486 in active area 446A into a portion of display 414 that overlaps inactive area 4461. By using optical structures to bend light from active area 446A, content may be displayed in portions of display 414 that overlap inactive regions 4461, providing display 414 with a borderless or near borderless appearance.

The optical structures that are used to enhance the apparent size of display 414 may be formed from transparent materials such as clear glass or plastic structures. As an example, the optical structures may be formed from sheets of clear glass or plastic material or from glass, plastic, or other transparent material of other shapes. Optical structures with curved surfaces for bending light may be formed using molding equipment, slumping equipment, machining equipment, or other tools for shaping clear material.

FIG. 50 is a diagram showing how a mold may be used to form optical structures with curved surfaces for bending light in display 414. As shown in FIG. 50, molding equipment 492 may include mold structures such as upper mold structures 494 and lower mold structures 498. Structures such as mold structures 494 and 498 may be heated. Optical material 402 (e.g., glass, plastic, ceramic, etc.) may be molded between the opposing surfaces of mold structures 494 and 498 (e.g., when upper mold structure 494 is moved in direction 496 and/or when lower mold structures 498 is moved in direction 400) . If desired, molding operations may also involve injection molding techniques. By molding material 402 with molding equipment 492, optical structures 404 that have curved or angle surfaces may be formed.

As shown in the illustrative configuration of FIG. 51, a slumping process may be used in forming optical structures with curved surfaces for bending light in display 414. Slumping equipment 406 may include a heated metal structure or other equipment with exposed curved surfaces such as curved surface 410. Optical material 408 (e.g., glass, plastic, ceramic, etc.) may be placed on top of surface 410 while slumping equipment 406 is heated. When equipment 406 reaches a sufficiently high

temperature, optical material 408 will slump under its own weight, thereby creating optical structures with curved surfaces such as optical structures 411. Following cooling, structures 411 may be removed from slumping equipment 406. As shown on the right-hand side of FIG. 51, the resulting shape for optical structures 411 may have curved surfaces such as curved upper surface 413 and curved lower surface 415.

FIG. 52 is a diagram showing how a machining process may be used to form display structures such as glass structures with curved surfaces. As shown in FIG. 52, optical material 401 may be processed using machining equipment 417. Machining equipment 417 may have a

machining head such as head 423 (e.g., a drill bit, milling cutter, or other machining tool) . Actuator 419 may use shaft 421 to rotate head 423 in direction 425 about rotational axis 427. Actuator 419 may include a motor for rotating shaft 421 and computer-controlled positioners for adjusting the location of shaft 421 and head 423 relative to optical material 401. Following machining of the edges or other portions of optical structures 401, optical structures 401 may have curved surfaces such as curved surfaces 431, as shown on the right-hand side of FIG. 52.

By providing optical structures in display 414 with curved edges or other curved or angled surfaces, the optical structures may bend light that is emitted from display pixels 486 in a way that allows the light to extend laterally outward over the otherwise inactive portions of the display. As a result, it will appear to a user of the display as if the display is borderless or nearly borderless.

An illustrative display of the type that may use curved optical structures to achieve a borderless or near borderless appearance to a viewer is shown in FIG. 53. As shown in the cross-sectional side view of display 414 in FIG. 53, display 414 may include active area display layers such as active display structures 446A. Inactive display structures such as inactive display structures 4461 of FIG. 49 are not shown. Active area display structures 446A may contain a rectangular array of display pixels such as display pixels 486 with a rectangular peripheral edge. Light rays 444 associated with display pixels may be produced by a backlight unit (e.g., a backlight unit in a display such as a backlit liquid crystal display) , may be produced by light reflected off of a reflector such as reflector 480 of FIG. 48, or may be emitted by light-emitting diode structures or other light sources within display pixels 486.

Optical structures 433 (e.g., optical structures of the type formed using the equipment of FIGS. 50, 51, and 52 or other equipment) may be formed from transparent optical members. For example, a display may be provided with an optical structure such as a transparent member formed from glass, plastic, ceramic, or other clear material. An optical member such as optical member 433 of FIG. 53 may have planar surfaces such as upper surface 435 (in the example of FIG. 53) and may have curved surfaces such as curved surfaces 437. Curved surfaces may be located on the upper and/or lower side of optical member 433. As shown in FIG. 53, for example, curved surfaces 437 may be located in peripheral edge portions of optical member 433 (e.g., the left and right edges of member 433 and, if desired, the upper and lower edges of member 433, as viewed from above in direction 450 by viewer 448) .

Curved surfaces 437 may allow optical structures such as member 433 to serve as light bending structures to bend light 444 from active display structures 446A so that the entire lateral expanse of display 414 appears to be filled with active image content. Display 414 may, for example, appear to have no left and right borders (when viewed in direction 450) and/or may additionally have no upper and lower borders (when viewed in direction 450) . The lateral dimensions (in X and Y) for active display structures 446A are less than the respective lateral dimensions X and Y of optical member 433, so the apparent image size for display 414 is enlarged. By enlarging the apparent size of the display, the display may be made to appear borderless or nearly borderless, even if active display structures 446A are surrounded by a border of inactive structures such as structures 446B.

Rays of light from active display structures 446A such as light ray 444M are produced by display pixels 486 that are near to the center of display 414. In this portion of display 414, light may travel vertically upwards to viewer 448 without significant bending. Near to the peripheral edges of active display structures 446A, light rays such as light rays 444E are emitted that are bent by the curved nature of the edges of optical

structures 433 (i.e., curved surfaces 437).

As shown by the bent trajectory of light rays 444E, light rays 444E that are emitted by display pixels 486 along the edges of active display structures 446A may, upon passing through optical structures 433, appear to viewer 448 as if they were emitted by display pixels located in inactive border region IA. The lateral extent (e.g., width W3 in FIG. 53) of display 414 over which light rays 444 are emitted and therefore the effective size of display 414 for displaying content to viewer 448 is enhanced by the presence of curved portions 437 of optical member 433, so it appears as if display 414 has an active area of lateral dimension W, rather than the more limited size of active area AA that is associated with the physical size of the array of display pixels 486 in structures 446A. In this way, surface 435 can be entirely covered with active display pixel content (e.g., graphics, text, video, etc.), providing display 414 with a

borderless or nearly borderless appearance, despite the presence of display control circuitry and other inactive structures in inactive region 4461 of display structures 446 (FIG. 49) .

In the illustrative example of FIG. 53, optical structures 433 have curved surfaces 437 that are located on the lower side of structures 433 near the peripheral edge of structures 433. Structures 433 may have a

rectangular shape when viewed in direction 450 (i.e., structures 433 may be formed from a rectangular sheet of optical material or other planar member with curved edge surfaces) . One or more, two or more, three or more, or four of the edges of rectangular optical structures 433 may be provided with curved surfaces such as surfaces 437.

If desired, both the upper and lower sides of optical structures 433 may be provided with curved

surfaces such as curved surfaces 437, as shown in FIG. 54. Curved surfaces 437 may cover some or all of the upper and lower surfaces of structures 433. In the example of FIG. 54, curved surfaces 437 are formed in peripheral portions of optical structures 433, but not in the central portions of structures 433. The center portions of the upper and lower surface of optical structures 433 may be planar.

FIG. 55 shows how the upper surface of optical structures 433 may be provided with a curved (convex) shape using upper curved surface 437. The lower surface of optical structures 433 in this type of configuration may be planar (as an example) .

In the configuration of FIG. 56, display 414 has been provide with optical structures 433 that have an upper surface with a planar central region and curved peripheral edge portions 437. The lower surface of optical structures 433 may be planar.

Optical structures 433 may be mounted against active display structures 446A or may be mounted so that an air gap or a gap filled with materials other than air is formed between optical structures 433 and active display structures 446A. FIG. 57 is a cross-sectional side view of display 414 in a configuration in which optical structures 433 have been mounted so that there is an air gap G between optical structures 433 and display structures 446A. In FIG. 57, the center of the upper surface of optical structures 433 is planar. FIG. 58 is a cross-sectional side view of display 414 in a

configuration in which optical structures 433 with a curved upper surface (surface 437) have been separated from display structures 446A by an air gap of size G.

Optical structures 433 (e.g., glass, plastic, or ceramic optical members of the types described in

connection FIGS. 53-58) may be mounted on the exterior of device 10 or in the interior of device 10. When mounted as the outermost structural display layer in device 10, optical structures 433 may sometimes be referred to as a display cover layer or display cover layer structures. When mounted in the interior of device 10, optical structures 433 may be covered by one or more additional layers of transparent material such as a display cover layer and/or other layers of clear material.

FIG. 59 is a cross-sectional side view of display 414 in an illustrative configuration in which optical structures 433 have been covered by additional optical structures such as display cover layer 439.

Display cover layer 439 may be a layer of transparent material such as a clear layer of plastic, glass or ceramic (as examples) . Light bending optical structures 433 of FIG. 59 have been formed from glass, plastic, or other clear material with a shape that exhibits a

triangular cross-section (i.e. a shape with sloped

surfaces 437) . Sloped surfaces 437 may form planar or non-planar curved surfaces for bending light. Air gap G may separate the lower surface of display cover layer 439 and the upper surface of display structures 446A. Optical structures 433 of FIG. 59 may run along the right and left edges of display 414 (e.g., make display 414 appear borderless along its right and left edges) , may run around the entire periphery of display 414 (e.g., structures 433 may have a rectangular ring shape with a central opening that makes display 414 appear borderless along all four of its edges) , or may be configured to cover other portions of the edges of display 414.

As shown in FIG. 60, optical structures 433 may be provided with optical coating layers such as layers 441. Layers 441 may be formed from dielectrics such as sputtered oxides, from clear materials deposited using physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, or other deposition techniques (e.g., coatings of glass, polymer, ceramic, or other materials) , or may be formed from other transparent coating layers on optical

structures 433. There may be one or more layers 441, two or more layers 441, three or more layers 441, or four or more layers 441. Layers 441 may include layers such as antireflection layers, antismudge layers, antiscratch layers, or other layers to modify the properties of the upper and/or lower surface of optical structures 433.

It may be desirable to use optically clear support structures such as layers of cured clear adhesive (transparent solidified liquid polymer) to support optical structures 433. As shown in FIG. 61, for example, device 10 may have a clear polymer layer such as polymer

structure 443 for supporting optical structures 433.

Components 445 may be mounted within housing 412. Display structures 446 may be mounted on support structures such as portions of housing 412 or other structures. To provide display 414 with a borderless or nearly borderless appearance, optical structures 433 may have curved

surfaces such as curved surfaces 437. Polymer material 443 may be formed from a cured optical adhesive (e.g., optically clear adhesive) . Initially, when in an uncured liquid state, polymer 443 may be placed on top of display structures 446 (e.g., by dripping, screen printing, spraying, etc.) Optical structures 433 may then be placed on top of the liquid polymer. Ultraviolet light curing or thermal curing techniques may then be used to cure the polymer material to form solid polymer support structures such as structures 443 of FIG. 61.

Structures 443 of FIG. 61 may support optical structures 433 and may hold structures 433 at a desired distance from display structures 446 such as active display structures 446A and may help attach optical structures 433 to device 10. Polymer material 443 may, if desired, have a relatively low index of refraction

compared to the index of refraction of optical structures 433. For example, optical structures 433 may be formed from a material such as glass with an index of refraction of 1.4 or above (e.g., 1.4 to 1.8), whereas polymer material 443 may have an index of refraction of less than 1.4, less than 1.3, less than 1.2, or less than 1.1 (e.g., 1.0 to 1.2) . In this way, polymer material 443 may behave optically as an air gap, allowing light 443 to be bent effectively by curved surfaces 437 of optical structures 433.

FIG. 62 is a cross-sectional side view of device

10 in a configuration in which curved surfaces 437 of optical structures 433 have been formed on the lower surface of optical structures 433, adjacent to solidified liquid polymer material 443.

In the illustrative configuration of FIG. 63, optical structures 433 have been covered with a layer of transparent material such as display cover layer 439.

Display cover layer 439 may be a planar sheet of glass, plastic, or ceramic. Optical structures 433 may have a planar upper surface such as upper surface 435. Angled edge surfaces 437 may lie in planes that are not coplanar with upper surface 435 to allow the edges of optical structures 433 to bend light from display structures 446. Air gaps such as gap G may separate optical structures such as optical structures 433 of FIG. 63 or other optical structures 433 from display cover layer 439 and/or polymer such as polymer 443 may be interposed between display cover layer 439 and optical structures 433 and/or between optical structures 433 and display structures 446.

If desired, device 10 may be provided with touch sensor functionality. A touch sensor for device 10 may be implemented using an array of capacitive touch sensor electrodes (e.g., transparent conductive electrodes such as indium tin oxide electrodes) , may use resistive touch technology, light-based touch sensors, acoustic touch sensor technology, or other touch sensor technology. As an example, a capacitive touch sensor for device 10 may be implemented using a one-sided or two-sided array of indium tin oxide electrodes. The electrodes may be formed on a touch sensor substrate such as a layer of glass or plastic that is separate from other layers in display 414 (e.g., a touch sensor substrate that is mounted within display 414 using adhesive) or may be formed on the surface of optical structures 433, display cover layer 439, or other

structures in display 414.

FIG. 64 is a cross-sectional side view of display 414 in a configuration in which touch sensor 445 has been formed on the lower surface of optical structures 433. An air gap or polymer gap may separate touch sensor 445 from display structures 446A. Touch sensor 445 may include capacitive touch sensor structures such as a one- layer or two-layer array of indium tin oxide electrodes. The indium tin oxide electrodes may be formed directly on the lower surface of optical structures 433 or may be formed on a substrate (e.g., a sheet of glass or polymer) that is attached to the underside of optical structures

433 by adhesive (as examples) . An air gap or a gap filled with polymer 443 may separate display structures 446A from touch sensor 445.

In the illustrative configuration of FIG. 65, touch sensor 445 has been formed on the surface of display structures 446A (e.g., by attaching a touch panel with a thin glass or polymer substrate to display structures 446A with adhesive) .

FIG. 66 is a cross-sectional side view of display 414 in a configuration in which touch sensor 445 has been formed on the upper surface of optical structures 433. Touch sensor 445 may have portions that are bent to conform to the shape of curved surfaces 437 of optical structures 433.

FIG. 67 is a cross-sectional side view of display 414 in a configuration in which touch sensor 445 has been formed on the upper surface of optical structures 433 and in which device 10 has a display cover layer such as cover layer 439. Cover layer 439 may be separated by an air gap or a gap filled with polymer 443 from touch sensor 445 and optical structures 433.

FIG. 68 is a cross-sectional side view of display 414 in a configuration in which touch sensor 445 has been formed on the underside of display cover layer 439 (either as layers deposited directly on display cover layer 439 or as a touch panel that is attached to display cover layer 439 with adhesive) . An air gap or a gap filled with polymer 443 may separate touch sensor 445 of FIG. 68 from optical structures 433. In accordance with an embodiment, a display for displaying content with an apparent size to a user is provided that includes active display structures having an area with lateral dimensions, and an optical member having lateral dimensions greater than the lateral dimensions of the active display

structures, the optical member has curved surfaces that bend light from the active display structures to make the apparent size of the display larger than the area of the active display structures.

In accordance with another embodiment, the optical member includes a sheet of material having

opposing first and second surfaces and the curved surfaces are formed on the first surface.

opposing first and second surfaces and the curved surfaces are formed on both the first and second surfaces.

In accordance with another embodiment, the optical member includes a layer of glass having a planar outer surface and an opposing inner surface that faces the active display structures and the curved surfaces are formed on an edge portion of the inner surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, the optical member includes a layer of glass having an outer surface and an opposing planar inner surface that faces the active display structures and the curved surfaces are formed on an edge portion of the outer surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, the optical member includes a layer of glass having an outer surface and an opposing planar inner surface that faces the active display structures and the curved surfaces are formed on edge portions of both the first and second surfaces .

In accordance with another embodiment, the array of liquid crystal display pixels includes rows and columns of display pixels with a rectangular periphery and the curved surfaces bend light from display pixels in the array of liquid crystal display pixels that are located along the rectangular periphery.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes a touch sensor on the optical member. In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes a display cover layer that overlaps the optical member.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes a display cover layer that overlaps the optical member, and a touch sensor on the display cover layer .

In accordance with another embodiment, the optical member has a planar surface facing the active display structures and a convex upper surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes solidified liquid polymer interposed between the optical structures and the active display structures to attach the optical member to the active display structures.

In accordance with another embodiment, the display includes a coating on the optical member.

In accordance with an embodiment, an electronic device is provided that includes a housing, a liquid crystal display in the housing, the liquid crystal display has active display structures that include an array of display pixels with a rectangular shape and a peripheral edge, and optical structures that are configured to bend light from at least some of the display pixels along the peripheral edge to provide the liquid crystal display with an area that displays images that is larger than the rectangular shape.

In accordance with another embodiment, the optical structures have opposing first and second surfaces, the first surface has a planar portion that faces the active display structures, and the second surface has curved portions that bend the light.

In accordance with another embodiment, the optical structures have opposing first and second

surfaces, the first surface has a planar portion that faces the active display structures and has curved

portions that bend the light. In accordance with another embodiment, the electronic device includes solidified liquid polymer between the active display structures and the optical structures to support the optical structures.

In accordance with another embodiment, the optical structures have angled edge portions that are configured to bend the light.

In accordance with another embodiment, the optical structures are configured to form an opening that overlaps a central portion of the active display

structures.

In accordance with an embodiment, an electronic device is provided that includes a housing, a liquid crystal display in the housing, the liquid crystal display has active display structures that include an array of display pixels with a rectangular shape and a peripheral edge, and a glass sheet having curved edge surfaces that are configured to bend light from at least some of the display pixels along the peripheral edge to provide the liquid crystal display with an area that displays images that is larger than the rectangular shape.

In accordance with another embodiment, the glass sheet has opposing upper and lower surfaces and the curved edge surfaces are formed on the upper surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, the glass sheet has opposing upper and lower surfaces, the lower surface faces the active display structures, and the curved edge surfaces are formed on the lower surface.

In accordance with another embodiment, the electronic device includes a planar display cover layer that overlaps the glass sheet.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the principles of this invention and various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

Claims

What is Claimed is:

1. A display for displaying content with an apparent size to a user, the display comprising:

active display structures having an area with lateral dimensions; and

an optical member having lateral dimensions greater than the lateral dimensions of the active display structures, wherein the optical member has curved surfaces that bend light from the active display structures to make the apparent size of the display larger than the area of the active display structures.

2. The display defined in claim 1 wherein the active display structures comprise an array of liquid crystal display pixels.

3. The display defined in claim 2 wherein the optical member comprises a sheet of material having opposing first and second surfaces and wherein the curved surfaces are formed on the first surface.

4. The display defined in claim 2 wherein the optical member comprises a sheet of material having opposing first and second surfaces and wherein the curved surfaces are formed on both the first and second surfaces.

5. The display defined in claim 2 wherein the optical member comprises a layer of glass having a planar outer surface and an opposing inner surface that faces the active display structures and wherein the curved surfaces are formed on an edge portion of the inner surface.

6. The display defined in claim 2 wherein the optical member comprises a layer of glass having an outer surface and an opposing planar inner surface that faces the active display structures and wherein the curved surfaces are formed on an edge portion of the outer surface .

7. The display defined in claim 2 wherein the optical member comprises a layer of glass having an outer surface and an opposing planar inner surface that faces the active display structures and wherein the curved surfaces are formed on edge portions of both the first and second surfaces.

8. The display defined in claim 2 wherein the array of liquid crystal display pixels includes rows and columns of display pixels with a rectangular periphery and wherein the curved surfaces bend light from display pixels in the array of liquid crystal display pixels that are located along the rectangular periphery.

9. The display defined in claim 8 further comprising a touch sensor on the optical member.

10. The display defined in claim 8 further comprising a display cover layer that overlaps the optical member .

11. The display defined in claim 8 further comprising : a display cover layer that overlaps the optical member; and

a touch sensor on the display cover layer.

12. The display defined in claim 8 wherein the optical member has a planar surface facing the active display structures and a convex upper surface.

13. The display defined in claim 1 further comprising solidified liquid polymer interposed between the optical structures and the active display structures to attach the optical member to the active display structures .

14. The display defined in claim 1 further comprising a coating on the optical member.

15. The display defined in claim 14 wherein the coating comprises an antireflection coating.

16. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing;

a liquid crystal display in the housing, wherein the liquid crystal display has active display structures that include an array of display pixels with a rectangular shape and a peripheral edge; and

optical structures that are configured to bend light from at least some of the display pixels along the peripheral edge to provide the liquid crystal display with an area that displays images that is larger than the rectangular shape.

17. The electronic device defined in claim 16 wherein the optical structures have opposing first and second surfaces, wherein the first surface has a planar portion that faces the active display structures, and wherein the second surface has curved portions that bend the light.

18. The electronic device defined in claim 16 wherein the optical structures have opposing first and second surfaces, wherein the first surface has a planar portion that faces the active display structures and has curved portions that bend the light.

19. The electronic device defined in claim 16 further comprising solidified liquid polymer between the active display structures and the optical structures to support the optical structures.

20. The electronic device defined in claim 16 wherein the optical structures have angled edge portions that are configured to bend the light.

21. The electronic device defined in claim 16 wherein the optical structures are configured to form an opening that overlaps a central portion of the active display structures.

22. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing;

a glass sheet having curved edge surfaces that are configured to bend light from at least some of the display pixels along the peripheral edge to provide the liquid crystal display with an area that displays images that is larger than the rectangular shape.

23. The electronic device defined in claim 22 wherein the glass sheet has opposing upper and lower surfaces and wherein the curved edge surfaces are formed on the upper surface.

24. The electronic device defined in claim 22 wherein the glass sheet has opposing upper and lower surfaces, wherein the lower surface faces the active display structures, and wherein the curved edge surfaces are formed on the lower surface.

25. The electronic device defined in claim 22 further comprising a planar display cover layer that overlaps the glass sheet.

26. A display for displaying content with an apparent size to a user, the display comprising:

active display structures having an area; upper optical structures having an area larger than the area of the active display structures; and lower optical structures that are

interposed between the active display structures and the upper optical structures, wherein the lower optical structures are configured to bend light from at least some of the active display structures, and wherein the upper optical structures are configured to bend light that has passed though the lower optical structures to make the apparent size of the display larger than the area of the active display structures.

27. The display defined in claim 26 wherein the active display structures include an array of display pixels with a rectangular periphery and wherein the lower and upper optical structures are configured to bend light from display pixels in the array of display pixels that are located along the rectangular periphery.

28. The display defined in claim 27 wherein the upper optical structures comprise a sheet of material having opposing first and second surfaces.

29. The display defined in claim 283 wherein the upper optical structures comprise curved surfaces that bend the light.

30. The display defined in claim 29 wherein the lower optical structures comprise curved surfaces that bend the light.

31. The display defined in claim 30 wherein the lower optical structures have a central opening over the active display structures through which light passes from a portion of the array of display pixels without bending.

32. The display defined in claim 31 further comprising a touch sensor.

33. The display defined in claim 32 wherein the first surface of the upper optical structures comprises a planar outer surface, wherein the second surface of the upper optical structures faces the active display

structures, and wherein the touch sensor is formed on the second surface.

34. The display defined in claim 32 wherein the first surface of the upper optical structures comprises a planar outer surface, wherein the second surface of the upper optical structures faces the active display

structures, and wherein the touch sensor is formed on the first surface.

35. The display defined in claim 31 further comprising a display cover layer that overlaps the upper optical structures.

36. The display defined in claim 26 further comprising :

a glass display cover layer that overlaps the upper optical structures; and

a touch sensor between the glass display cover layer and the upper optical structures.

37. The display defined in claim 36 wherein the upper optical structures comprise a layer of glass with curved edge surfaces that bend the light.

38. The display defined in claim 26 further comprising a coating on the upper optical structures.

39. The display defined in claim 38 wherein the coating comprises an antireflection coating.

40. The display defined in claim 39 wherein the active display structures comprise an array of liquid crystal display pixels.

41. The display defined in claim 26 wherein the lower optical structures comprise Fresnel lens structures.

42. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing;

a display in the housing, wherein the display has active display structures that include an array of display pixels having an area with a rectangular shape and a peripheral edge; and

upper optical structures having an area larger than the area of the array of display pixels; and lower optical structures that are

interposed between the active display structures and the upper optical structures, wherein the lower optical structures are configured to bend light from at least the active display structures along the peripheral edge, and wherein the upper optical structures are configured to bend light that has passed though the lower optical structures .

43. The electronic device defined in claim 42 wherein the upper optical structures comprise a layer of glass with curved edge surfaces.

44. The electronic device defined in claim 43 further comprising a layer of polymer interposed between the upper optical structures and the lower optical

structures .

45. The electronic device defined in claim 43 wherein the lower optical structures comprise an opening that overlaps the array of display pixels and curved edge surfaces that bend the light.

46. The electronic device defined in claim 43 wherein the lower optical structures comprise Fresnel lens structures .

47. A display, comprising:

active display structures that include an array of display pixels with a rectangular shape and a peripheral edge;

glass structures having portions that run along the peripheral edge and having a central opening that overlaps the array of display pixels, wherein the glass structures have curved surfaces that bend light from at least some of the display pixels along the peripheral edge; and

a glass sheet having curved edge surfaces that are configured to bend the light to provide the display with an area that displays images that is larger than the rectangular shape.

48. The display defined in claim 47 wherein the array of display pixels comprises an array of liquid crystal display pixels.

49. The display defined in claim 48 wherein the glass sheet has opposing upper and lower surfaces and wherein curved edge surfaces are formed on the lower surface to bend the light from the display pixels along the peripheral edge.

50. The display defined in claim 49 further comprising :

polymer between the glass sheet and the glass structures that supports the glass sheet.

51. The display defined in claim 47 wherein the glass structures comprise Fresnel lens structures.

52. A display, comprising:

display structures having an array of display pixels surrounded by at least some inactive display regions; and

a fiber bundle on the display structures, wherein the fiber bundle includes fibers with cross- sectional areas of varying aspect ratios.

53. The display defined in claim 52 wherein each display pixel provides light to a respective plurality of the fibers.

54. The display defined in claim 53 wherein a portion of the fiber bundle includes an upper surface and a lower surface, wherein the fibers have first cross- sectional areas on the upper surface and second cross- sectional areas on the lower surface, and wherein the first cross-sectional areas have a larger aspect ratio than the second cross-sectional areas.

55. The display defined in claim 54 wherein the upper surface comprises a planar surface.

56. The display defined in claim 55 wherein the fiber bundle includes an edge portion with a curved surface .

57. The display defined in claim 52 wherein the fibers comprise glass fibers.

58. The display defined in claim 52 wherein the display structures comprise liquid crystal display structures .

59. The display defined in claim 58 wherein the display structures include organic light-emitting diode display structures.

60. The display defined in claim 52 wherein the fiber bundle includes a central portion in which fibers run vertically through the fiber bundle in straight lines and wherein the fiber bundle includes at least one edge portion in which the fibers run along curved paths.

61. An electronic device, comprising:

a housing having first and second ends and having first and second sidewall edges that run parallel to each other between the first and second ends;

display structures that includes an array of display pixels; and

a fiber bundle on the array of display pixels, wherein the fiber bundle has edge portions that overlap the first and second sidewall edges.

62. The electronic device defined in claim 61 wherein the fiber bundle has a lower surface adjacent to the display structures and an upper surface, wherein the display pixels are configured to display an image, and wherein the fiber bundle is configured to route the image from the lower surface to the upper surface.

63. The display defined in claim 61 wherein each display pixel provides light to a respective

plurality of the fibers in the fiber bundle.

64. The display defined in claim 61 wherein the fiber bundle includes an upper surface and a lower surface, wherein the fibers have first cross-sectional areas on a portion of the upper surface and second cross- sectional areas on a portion of the lower surface, and wherein the first cross-sectional areas have a larger aspect ratio than the second cross-sectional areas.

65. The display defined in claim 64 wherein the upper surface comprises a planar surface and wherein at least some fibers in the fiber bundle have third cross- sectional areas on at least some of the upper surface and fourth cross-sectional areas on at least some of the lower surface, and wherein the third cross-sectional areas and the fourth cross-sectional areas are equal.

66. The display defined in claim 61 wherein the fiber bundle includes a central portion with a planar surface .

67. The display defined in claim 66 wherein the fiber bundle has a first edge portion that runs along one side of the central portion and a second edge portion that runs along an opposing side of the central portion and wherein the first and second edge portions have curved surfaces .

68. A display, comprising:

a display layer that includes an array of display pixels;

at least one component in an inactive edge portion of the display layer; and

a fiber bundle having bent fibers that overlap the component.

69. The display defined in claim 68 wherein the fiber bundle includes a first surface and a second

surface, wherein the fibers have first cross-sectional areas on the first surface and second cross-sectional areas on the second surface, and wherein the first cross- sectional areas have a larger aspect ratio than the second cross-sectional areas.

70. The display defined in claim 69 wherein the fiber bundle is configured so that second surface is adjacent to the array of display pixels.

71. The display defined in claim 70 wherein the first surface is planar.

72. The display defined in claim 68 wherein the fiber bundle has first and second lateral dimensions and has edges that protrude outward in the first lateral dimension and not the second lateral dimension.

73. A display, comprising:

a plurality of display layers that generate display light for the display;

a first substrate attached to the display layers that includes a plurality of first optical fibers; and

a second substrate attached to the first substrate that includes a plurality of second optical fibers .

74. The display defined in claim 73 wherein the display layers comprise a plurality of display pixels that generate the display light, wherein at least one of the plurality of first optical fibers is configured to pass the display light generated by an associated one of the plurality of display pixels into at least one of the plurality of second optical fibers.

75. The display defined in claim 74 wherein each of the plurality of first optical fibers has a first common numerical aperture, wherein each of the plurality of second optical fibers has a second common numerical aperture, and wherein the first numerical aperture is smaller than the second numerical aperture.

76. The display defined in claim 74 wherein each of the plurality of first optical fibers has a common diameter, wherein each of the plurality of second optical fibers has a second common diameter and wherein the first diameter is larger than the second diameter.

77. The display defined in claim 73, further comprising :

a light diffusing layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate.

78. The display defined in claim 77 wherein the light diffusing layer comprises surface features on a surface of the first substrate.

79. The display defined in claim 78 wherein the second substrate is fused to the surface of the first substrate .

The display defined in claim 77 wherein the light diffusing layer comprises an optically clear

adhesive and light redirecting structures in the optically clear adhesive.

81. The display defined in claim 80 wherein the light redirecting structures comprise metallic particles.

82. The display defined in claim 73 wherein the plurality of display layers includes a light polarizing layer and wherein the first substrate is attached to the light polarizing layer.

83. The display defined in claim 73 wherein the first substrate comprises glass.

84. The display defined in claim 83 wherein the second substrate comprises glass.

85. A display, comprising:

an array of light generating elements that generate display light;

a first array of fiber optic light guide structures formed over the array of light generating elements; and

a second array of fiber optic light guide structures formed over the first array of fiber optic light guide structures, wherein the display light

generated by the array of light generating elements passes through the first array of fiber optic light guide

structures and through the second array of fiber optic light guide structures.

86. The display defined in claim 85 wherein the first array of fiber optic light guide structures includes a plurality of fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the light generating elements.

87. The display defined in claim 86 wherein the second array of fiber optic light guide structures

88. The display defined in claim 87 wherein the plurality of fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the light generating elements comprises at least nine fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the light generating elements .

89. The display defined in claim 88 wherein the plurality of fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the first fiber optic light guide structures comprises at least nine fiber optic light guide structures that receive light from each of the first fiber optic light guide structures.

90. The display defined in claim 85 wherein the second array of fiber optic light guide structures

comprises :

a substrate having first and second

opposing surfaces; and a plurality of vertical fiber optic light guide structures that extend from the first surface to the second surface, wherein each of the vertical fiber optic light guide structures is elongated along an axis that is perpendicular to the first and second surfaces.

91. The display defined in claim 90 wherein the second array of fiber optic light guide structures further comprises :

a plurality of angled fiber optic light guide structures that extend from the first surface to the second surface, wherein each of the angled fiber optic light guide structures is elongated along an axis that forms an angle other than ninety degrees with the first and second surfaces.

92. The display defined in claim 91 wherein the plurality of vertical fiber optic light guide structures are formed in a central portion of the display, wherein the angled fiber optic light guide structures extend from the central portion of the display to edge portions of the display, and wherein the angled fiber optic light guide structures guide at least some of the display light from the central portion of the display to the edge portions of the display.

93. An electronic device, comprising:

a display having a thin-film transistor layer, a color filter layer, a layer of liquid crystal material interposed between the thin-film transistor layer and the color filter layer, and first and second bundled fiber optic layers, wherein the color filter layer has an edge, wherein the second bundled fiber optic layer has a portion that extends beyond the edge, and wherein the second bundled fiber optic layer is configured to guide display light into the portion that extends beyond the edge .

94. The electronic device defined in claim 93, further comprising:

display control circuitry mounted along the edge of the color filter layer and behind the portion of the second bundled fiber optic layer that extends beyond the edge .