The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 68 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover Apple's invention that reveals breakthrough quantum tunneling touch sensitive materials for future iPhone smart cases and Apple Watch bands.

Apple describes the new quantum tunneling material as deformable and touch-sensitive. It could be used in future smart iPhone cases allowing for touch zones on the back of the case to control functionality of an iPhone.

More importantly, it could be used as a material for making the iPhone itself. The use of this material would virtually eliminate bulky physical buttons forever making the iPhone near waterproof perfect and slick to the touch. The material could also extend to a future smart Apple Watch band.

The back surface of the smart case comprises a user input region formed from a quantum tunneling material, where the sensing circuit is configured to detect a change in an electrical property of the quantum tunneling material in response to a deformation resulting from a touch force of a user input.

Apple's patent FIG. 1A below shows an isometric view of an iPhone and a new smart case; FIG. 2A shows the backside of the case that includes touch-sensitive materials and touch zones.

In Apple's patent FIG. 3 noted below we're able to see where the battery for the smart case would be located along with battery charge indicator lights and an input region.

Apple's patent FIG. 5 below shows us an example Apple Watch and smart band that includes touch-sensitive materials FIG. 6A shows an exploded isometric view of a portion of an Apple Watch with touch-sensitive materials in the band; FIG 11 is a flow chart/overview of the system.

Technically Apple has applied this type of functionality directly to the back of iPhone 12 via iOS 14. Applying this type of feature to a future iPhone case would seem like a natural evolutionary move using advanced quantum tunneling materials.  

For more details, you could review our patent application report on this invention here or review Apple's granted patent 10,838,461