The Details behind the fascinating engineering of the Apple 18 Pro Under Display Face ID IR dot projector

In Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro announcement, they almost mentioned in passing that the “Dynamic Island” is now 25% smaller and can now hold 3 live activities. Great leading with the user benefit there, Apple. However, it got me curious how did they achieve it? Apple’s functionalities often combine industrial, mechanical, electrical, optical designs with software innovations that get manufactured at scale. When you dig deep, there are often very few companies that perform those kind of core innovations. Oh boy, I was not at all disappointed by this rabbit hole. Let’s start with some basics: Under-screen optical sensing isn’t new in the same way that mobile phones weren’t new when Apple introduced the iPhone. Android OEMs have placed both basic infrared components as well as ambient light and proximity sensors heavily used by Samsung, Xiaomi and the ilk. These sensors use low-bandwidth infrared light emitted through the microscopic gaps of the OLED pixels. Think of these are v1 of this…

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