The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 64 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's patent relating to Apple's TrueDepth camera and its advancement with an integrated "integrity sensor" which could enable sharper imagery with finer details. Further, the invention relates to modules and methods for projection of optical radiation related to the Face ID process.

Apple's patent FIG. 11B below is a schematic frontal view of the housing of FIG. 11A, showing a DOE connected to the electrical traces molded into the housing. The key to this patent FIG. is to illustrate the "integrity Sensor" which may be in use today or coming to a future high-end iPhone's TrueDepth camera. A module with an integrated integrity sensor of this sort also comprises other components, such as a detector for collecting and sensing the projected radiation that is reflected back from a scene to the module. This would be used for Face ID and the creation of Animoji and Memoji avatars.

Apple's patent FIGS. 6 and 7 above are schematic frontal views of diffractive optical element - DOEs #70 and #74, respectively, on which serpentine transparent conductive traces #72, #76 have been formed for purposes of integrity sensing, in accordance with further embodiments of the invention.

Trace #72 is formed in a zigzag pattern, which both increases the baseline resistance of the trace and gives denser coverage of the surface of DOE #70, thus enabling finer detection of small, local defects in the DOE.

Trace #76 is shaped to fit the active optical area of DOE #74.  Alternatively, traces of other suitable shapes, patterns, densities and extents may be used, depending upon application requirements.

Apple's granted patent 10,667,341 was originally filed in Q3 2019 well after the original Face ID patent was made public in our 2018 report titled "An Overview of Apple's Second Round of Face ID Secrets."  That patent had noted some of the original work had been done in 2017, the year iPhone X with the notched TrueDepth camera was introduced.