Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to a possible future large foldable display device that is aimed as some form of MacBook or Foldable iPad. Apple's patent claims clearly describes the device as a "Laptop" while the lead inventor is a Manager for iPad Product Design.

Electronic Device with Flexible Displays

Apple's granted patent covers a future electronic device that may have a display. The electronic device may have a hinge that allows the device to be flexed about a bend axis. The display may overlap the bend axis.

To facilitate bending of the display about the bend axis, the display may have one or more layers such as an outer display cover layer with grooves or other recesses. The display cover layer may be formed from glass or other transparent materials. The recesses may form a flexible portion in a display layer that allows glass or other transparent materials of the display layer to bend about the bend axis.

The grooves or other recesses may be filled with polymer or other materials. In some configurations, a display layer may have openings that are filled with liquids. In display layer arrangements with flexible glass or polymer structures, the material that fills the grooves or other openings in the display layer may have an index of refraction value that matches the index of refraction of the glass or polymer structures.

A hinge may be formed between rigid planar layers that are separated by a gap. The rigid planar layers may be glass layers or other transparent layers in a display or may be housing walls or other structural portions of an electronic device. Flexible layers that lie flush with opposing surfaces of the rigid planar layers may be used to span the gap and form the hinge.

Below are a series of patent figures related to Apple's foldable device.  

This is Apple's second granted patent that presents 20 new patent claims wherein all 20 claims identify the foldable device as a "Laptop" as presented below:

1. A laptop, comprising: first and second housing portions configured to rotate relative to one another about an axis; a flexible display that spans across the first and second housing portions and that folds along the axis; a cover layer through which the flexible display presents images, wherein the cover layer has an inner surface facing the flexible display; and grooves in the inner surface of the cover layer that overlap the axis.

2. The laptop defined in claim 1 wherein the grooves have sloped sidewalls.

3. The laptop defined in claim 1 wherein the grooves are parallel to one another.

4. The laptop defined in claim 1 further comprising a filler material in the grooves.

5. The laptop defined in claim 4 wherein the filler material covers portions of the inner surface that are free of grooves.

6. The laptop defined in claim 4 wherein the filler material comprises clear elastomeric polymer.

7. The laptop defined in claim 4 wherein the cover layer has a first refractive index and the filler material has a second refractive index that matches the first refractive index.

8. The laptop defined in claim 1 wherein the grooves follow non-straight paths.

9. The laptop defined in claim 1 wherein the grooves have segments that are non-parallel with the axis.

10. The laptop defined in claim 1 wherein the grooves have curved sidewalls.

11. A laptop, comprising: a foldable housing; a foldable display; a glass cover layer through which the foldable display presents images, wherein the foldable housing, the foldable display, and the glass cover layer fold along an axis and wherein the glass cover layer has grooves that overlap the axis; and filler material in the grooves.

12. The laptop defined in claim 11 wherein the glass cover layer has a first refractive index and the filler material has a second refractive index that matches the first refractive index.

13. The laptop defined in claim 11 wherein the foldable display is configured to present the images across the axis.

14. The laptop defined in claim 11 wherein the grooves have curved sidewalls.

15. The laptop defined in claim 11 wherein the glass cover layer has an inner surface facing the foldable display and wherein the grooves are formed in the inner surface and have segments that are non-parallel with the axis.

16. A laptop, comprising: first and second housing portions coupled by a hinge; a flexible display that spans across the first and second housing portions and that folds along the hinge; a cover layer through which the flexible display presents images, wherein the cover layer has an inner surface facing the flexible display; and a groove in the inner surface of the cover layer that overlaps the hinge, wherein the groove has sloped sidewalls.

17. The laptop defined in claim 16 wherein the sloped sidewalls are curved.

18. The laptop defined in claim 16 further comprising a filler material in the groove.

19. The laptop defined in claim 18 wherein the filler material covers portions of the inner surface that do not have grooves.

20. The laptop defined in claim 16 wherein the images span across the hinge.

It's pretty clear what foldable device Apple is aiming for in this patent: A Laptop.

To review the full details of this invention, check out granted patent 12238954. While this is Apple's fourth granted patent for this device, it's only the second granted patent that identified the foldable device in its patent claims as a "Laptop."

Interestingly enough, the lead inventor on this patent is Erik Uttermann, Manager, iPad Product Design. That would strongly suggest that the patent may be aimed at a future foldable iPad that will be able to function as a "Laptop."