Apple has filed a patent application with the US Patent & Trademark office for a foldable display that can be used in future devices. The patent describes a device that can be ‘opened and closed like a book’.
In the filing, Apple states that the foldable display will be have a flexible region where the display can bend along an axis to allow it to fold without breaking the display. It also lists possible display technologies – LCD, OLED and microLEDs. MicroLED displays are rather similar to existing LEDs based screens; albeit with smaller diodes.
Other interesting items of note in the patent includes using liquid metal as a support structure for the display in either open or closed forms. The use of liquid metal is quite rare in smartphones, with the Turing phone being the last mention of the material in recent times.
The foldable phone by Apple is said to be a collaboration between it and LG, as reports online states that Apple may be investing in an LG display factory to enable production of the foldable display. LG is Apple’s main supplier for the iPhone X, which is an OLED screen.
With Samsung, Oppo and now Apple in the foldable smartphone race, we may see more coming from other manufacturers in the near future.
(Source: Patently Apple via 9to5Mac )
