Apple's long-rumoured iPhone Fold could be in the offing, new patents suggest

It is no secret that Apple is prepping to come up with its own foldable device soon. In line with this, the American tech giant has secured a couple of patents for newfangled display technologies.

However, it is worth mentioning here that most OEMs do not end up making a corresponding product after being awarded such patents. Still, the recently surfaced patent listings have triggered all sorts of speculations surrounding the long-rumoured iPhone Fold (or a foldable iPhone).

To those unaware, the Cupertino-based tech behemoth has bagged a myriad of patents in foldable technology in recent years. Now, Apple has won another patent related to the aforesaid technology in the US. This patent has been granted to the company by the USPTO )US Patent and Trademark Office).

Notably, the patent's description hints at a crack-resistant foldable display. Apparently, Apple is trying to make a three-layer foldable display, which will understandably be hard to crack. Furthermore, the display will have a protective layer, a thin-film transistor layer, coupled with a flexible substrate layer.

The protective layer is designed to protect the flexible substrate since it is more prone to cracks than the other layers. This piece of information comes from GizmoChina. According to the report, Apple has won another patent for a display technology comprising a self-healing protective layer.

In other words, this protective layer can recover from minor scratches and other usual damages. Regrettably, how this technology would work is still a mystery. It is safe to assume that a composite chemical material will help the upper layer of the display to heal itself from certain scratches.

Although the rumour mill has been churning out speculations around self-healing displays for quite some time now, it has not been implemented in the real world yet. Also, it is worth noting that Apple hasn't dropped a major hint that confirms it is working on a foldable iPhone.

Still, the word on the street is that the iPhone Fold will see the light of day later this year. This is exactly why there's so much hype surrounding Apple's latest patent filing. Alternatively, these two patents might not even translate into real consumer products.