“Apple on Tuesday received a patent for touch screen LCD technology which integrates touch-sensing elements with display circuitry to create a thinner, lighter panel that will possibly make its way to the company’s popular smartphone,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.

“Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 8,243,027 for a ‘Touch screen liquid crystal display’ describes a variety of methods in which a touchscreen’s touch-sensing elements are integrated within the LCD, unlike current technology which places the touch layer over a device’s screen,” Campbell reports. “The patent filing cross-references a number of properties regarding multi-touch and LCD technologies.”

Campbell reports, “LCD touchscreen technology used in the current iPhone 4S, for example, is ‘glass-on-glass’ or ‘on cell,’ meaning the touch sensitive capacitive element is sandwiched between a display unit’s top glass and a protective Gorilla Glass layer… In-cell technology removes the top substrate, or glass layer, by combining the liquid crystal and touch sensing elements into a single structure.”

Read more in the full article here.