Apple has applied for at least three new patents for quantum dot (QD) technology, a technique that will significantly improve the quality of its iPad displays, possibly also its iPhone display, and make them more competitive with Samsung.

Technewsworld reports positive reactions from industry analysts, though some question whether users care about improved display quality at this stage of technology development. Display experts, Displaymate, say QDs will revolutionize LCD displays over the next five years, bringing them on a par with the OLED screens favored by Apple's main competitor.

Quantum Dot is an enhancement film layer that improves the color performance of LCD screens, like the Retina. It can also be used to enhance the color performance of TVs. Quantum Dot technology has the advantage of being able to work with existing display production lines - it's a drop-in technology with no significant capital investment required.

What's doubly interesting is that there are already  quantum dot technologies on the market. I wrote back in the summer that inventors Nanosys and fabricator 3M were ready to roll with quantum dot enhancement film (QDEF).

English: 3D confined electron wave functions i...

English: 3D confined electron wave functions in a Quantum Dot. Here, rectangular and triangular-shaped quantum dots are shown. Energy states in rectangular dots are more ‘s-type’ and ‘p-type’. However, in a triangular dot the wave functions are mixed due to confinement symmetry. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Clearly Apple decided the iPhone 5C and 5S were not the right models with which to launch a quantum dot layer, probably because they did not increase the size of the display (QD seems to have a lower level effectiveness of about 7 inches right now).

Nanosys claims that the technology improves color experience by 50%, though they make that claim specifically about TVs. Current TV display technology utilizes only 30% of human color perception capability, implying that smaller displays utilize even less.

MacRumors commented on an Apple quantum dot patent application back in December:

Apple has filed for a United States patent detailing a quantum dot-enhanced liquid crystal display with a dichroic filter that can provide a greater accuracy of colors over traditional displays, reports AppleInsider. Similar technology is currently being used by Amazon in the Kindle Fire HDX 7, which significantly outperforms that of the Retina iPad mini with regard to color gamut and accuracy

It's not untypical of Apple to build its own IP around existing technologies prior to launching an improvement. Apple now has patent applications filed for wrap-around AMOLED displays as well as quantum dot LCDs.

While it's by no means certain that Apple will use the technology in its displays, one could equally ask the question why did it not use QD earlier? And the answer seems to be that it wanted to build up its own IP around the QD first.

Apple's patent applications mention alternative materials for quantum dot - they claim in its current incarnation it is highly toxic - and for improving the way the enhancement film works with LED back-lighting.

The patent also suggests that there "remains a need" for designing the quantum-dot enhanced display to achieve more breakthroughs before it becomes ready for general use, including reduced toxicity, improved performance, and lower cost in fabrication.

Ironically though it is in increasing use - Amazon uses QD in the Kindle Fire HDX 7 and Sony has incorporated QD into some of its TVs already, though only Apple has a Retina display to incorporate QD into.
