Apple Has Patented a Method of Incorporating RFID Technology Into iPhone Screen

Yesterday The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published the filing of another Apple's patent entitled "Touch Screen RFID Tag Reader". It describes "the efficient incorporation of RFID circuitry with touch sensor panel circuitry".

How does it work? RFID (Radio-frequency identification) is a technology that uses communication through the use of radio waves to exchange data between a transponder and an electronic tag attached to an object, for the purpose of identification and tracking. In its patent Apple describes a method that allows making a touch screen panel work as an RFID transponder and thus eliminating the necessity of adding "space-consuming RFID antenna".

Instead of creating a separate metal layer loops for RFID antenna it may be formed of "metal on the same layer as metal traces form in the borders of a substrate".

This is not a first Apple's patent that mentions RFID technology. Previous documents clearly show Apple is going to add RFID tag readers into its next-gen iDevices, and "ID App" will allow users utilize the technology, sense and connect to surrounding WiFi networks and gain more information about the objects with built-in RFID tag.

Last year many publications suggested the iPhone 4 could get a RFID support, but that didn't happen. Maybe the next-gen iPhone will implement the technology, described in this patent?

The patent is authored by Steve Porter Hotelling and Michael Nathaniel Rosenblatt.