IT Home reported on March 7 that the United States Patent and Trademark Office officially announced a patent application from Apple today, which covers future foldable devices, including iPhones, hybrid tablets, laptops and other products. This patent application proposes a method of chemically creating textured glass at the fold to prevent it from cracking. IT Home reported earlier that a research report released by renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo** that foldable iPad-MacBook hybrid devices could reach mass production in 2027.
The patent is titled "Electronic Devices with Folding Displays H**ing Textured Flexible Areas". The patent describes a foldable electronic device with a flexible display embedded in a foldable body and capable of bending along a folding axis. The surface of the screen is covered with a transparent glass cover, and in order to allow the cover to bend even when the device is folded, the patent proposes a process for etching slender grooves into the glass cover, so that the glass in this area is thinner and bend. The grooves are filled with polymer material to flatten the inner surface of the cover and the rough texture of the surface of the filler helps to reduce the reflection of light.
The patent is accompanied by several schematics, the first of which shows a foldable device that can be in a variety of forms, from mobile phones and tablets to laptops. When the contents of the display are needed, the user can unfold it into a tablet form, and fold it for easy portability.
The patent also mentions that the polymer inside the groove can be injected by liquid infusion and then cured by ultraviolet irradiation, heat or other curing processes, and the polymer can be made of flexible materials such as silicone or acrylate. The rough texture of the cover surface not only helps to fix the polymer, but also allows light to gradually pass through the interface between the glass and the polymer, reducing the reflection of light.
Finally, the patent states that the inner and outer surfaces of the cover can also be treated with a chemical strengthening process to create a more abrasion-resistant and scratch-resistant reinforcement layer. For example, replacing sodium ions with potassium ions on the glass surface through an ion exchange process can introduce compressive stress into the glass surface, thereby improving its resistance to breakage.