Owners of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) devices such as iPhones and iPods have struggled against scratches on the screen since the products were introduced, and today, an Apple Inc. patent application meant to address this issue was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent application was filed with the USPTO on August 23rd, 2013, and describes several ways of preventing scratches. The most intriguing is a self-healing coating which would flow to fill in scratches after the screen was damaged.
The inventors of these methods are listed as Eric L. Benson, Jun Qi, and Victor H. Yun, all from Cupertino, California (as might be expected). Mr. Benson is a senior display engineer at Apple Inc., a Stanford-educated scientist who has worked for such companies as Delphi Automotive Systems and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. He has previously taken an important role in developing the iPad’s Retina display. Jun Qi is an engineering manager who designed displays and backlights for several MacBook Pro iterations.
The patent application details several methods of preventing the well-known annoyance of scratches on the glass of electronics displays. Each is described separately, but it is also indicated that two or more could be used together simultaneously to shield the screen’s integrity more thoroughly. One option is to cover the surface with a pattern of tiny, convex bumps molded directly onto the glass panel. Another idea was the use of a non-stick coating to make the display slicker, so that potentially scratching objects glide off harmlessly instead.
Most intriguing, however, is the idea of a self-healing coating for iPhone and iPad screens. The coating can be placed in several positions relative to other protective measures, and, according to the patent application, would be less than 50 nanometers thick. According to the application, entitled “Systems and Methods for Preventing Light Guide Plate Scratching Artifacts,” the coating would flow to fill in scratches in its own surface. It could also heal penetrating scratches which passed through it to scratch the layers below.
One product speculatively named as suitable for the task in the Apple Inc (AAPL) application is “Self Healing Cure,” a product of Natoco Co., Ltd. It is unclear from the document whether the Cupertino, CA. enterprise has contacted the Japanese industrial coatings manufacturer, but if Apple ever makes the self-healing display a reality, it will have little trouble locating a suitable high-tech firm to supply the needed materials. From the consumer’s perspective, this advance would greatly increase the useful life of iPhones, iPads, and other Apple products, especially from an esthetic perspective.
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