Motorola patent shows smartphone screen that repairs itself
Motorola has received a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for a display that can repair itself by rapidly ramping up the temperature using shape memory polymers.
In the description of the technology, noted by The Verge, a drawing of a smartphone screen is visible, showing an icon of probably a special repair app or repair function. This feature works through one or more processors to control a thermal element that generates heat upon deformation, thus undoing some of the deformation.
According to the description, the material used for the screen consists of shape memory polymers. These are ‘smart’ polymers that are programmed, as it were, to remember their original shape. If the object made of these polymers is bent, a higher temperature can restore it to its original shape. Depending on the specific polymers used, the material may exhibit an elastic effect as the temperature changes.
According to Motorola, the self-healing effect has already been shown to be able to completely remove scratches and dents, while partially repairing cracks and breaks. The fact that fractures cannot be completely repaired has to do with the separation of the molecular chains at a break, so that material flow is required to enable a complete repair.
Motorola mentions the use of LCD and LED screens, among other things. The technology uses a screen incorporating capacitive touch sensors and the special polymers. By the way, Motorola mainly talks about an ‘electronic device’, which means that the technology, if it ever becomes a reality, will not necessarily be used only for smartphones.
The use of shape memory polymers promises to become an important new technology, especially for aerospace and aviation. For example, it can be used for wings that change shape. It can also be important in the medical sector, for example for biodegradable sutures or stents that open blood vessels more or less depending on body temperature. Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, among others, have developed a 3D printing method to print objects that consist of shape memory polymers and can change shape.