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Credit: United States Patent Application 20200313111
Apple Inc. has applied for a patent for a flexible phone that also has self-healing display technology. The company applied for the patent last year and it was recently made public.
Flexibility technology in smartphones is still in its infancy. Phones that are available have been found to be susceptible to more screen scratches than regular phones. This is due to dirt or other material getting on the screen, which becomes a scratch problem when the phone is bent and especially when it is bent. Because of that, major smartphone makers, including Apple, have been looking for a way to make them scratch less easily. One possible solution is to put a layer of material on the face of the screen that has self-healing capabilities. In this new patent application, Apple has made it clear that the company is studying the possibility of manufacturing and selling a new flexible or foldable phone; the name of the technology you seek to patent is called “Electronic Devices with Flexible Screen Cover Layers.”
In the patent application, Apple refers not only to flexible phone technology, but also to folding technology, similar perhaps to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold smartphone. In their file, they refer to it as vertically folded, like a book. Mention is also made of an elastomer layer (elastomers are elastic materials that return to their original shape after being bent, usually due to the application of heat) that covers the screen, making it self-healing. The application of elastomer layers generally requires an external force to come into play to trigger a self-healing event. Generally, as stated in the patent application, this comes in the form of heat, electricity, or light. Apple doesn’t specify which one it had in mind for its foldable phone. It is also not mentioned in the patent application when self-healing could occur, either on demand, at night during charging, or during maintenance efforts. Apple also lists eight people in the patent application as inventors of the technology they seek to patent.
In particular, Apple and other companies routinely file patent applications for technology that never comes to fruition, so it is unclear how serious Apple is in developing the technology described in the application.
Folding wars? New patent application suggests Apple is preparing a ‘foldable’ iPhone
Electronic Devices with Flexible Screen Cover Layers, US Patent Application 20200313111
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Citation: Apple applies for patent on self-healing phone display technology (Oct 5, 2020) retrieved Oct 5, 2020 from https://techxplore.com/news/2020-10-apple-patent-self- healing-technology.html
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