A newly granted Apple patent (number 11,313,741) shows that the tech giant is considering other heath care products beyond the Apple Watch. That includes health-related features for AirPods and AirPods Pro.
About the patent
The patent is for “packaging technologies for temperature censoring on health care products.” In it notes that wearable health devices are increasingly integrating a broad variety of sensors to better monitor heath status of users. With the development of packaging technologies such as system in package, embedded die, semiconductor very-large-scale integration (VLSI) technologies, etc., it’ spossible to develop miniaturized systems and devices. Skin temperature is one of the vital signs for patient’s health.
Apple could incorporate such features into its Apple Watch, as well as AirPods and AirPods Pro.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s summary of the patent with technical details: “Temperature sensor packages and methods of fabrication are described. The temperature sensor packages in accordance with embodiments may be rigid or flexible. In some embodiments the temperature sensor packages are configured for touch sensing, and include an electrically conductive sensor pattern such as a thermocouple or resistance temperature detector (RTD) pattern. In some embodiments, the temperature sensor packages are configured for non-contact sensing an include an embedded transducer.”
