We all want our handhelds to have copious computing power and bountiful battery life, but thin is in, and most users are looking for a device that's less Marilyn Monroe and more Kate Moss. To keep new phones and tablets runway-ready, Asahi developed a thinner glass substrate for use in touchscreen displays. This new 0.28mm soda-lime glass is 15% thinner than the company's existing offerings, and Asahi will begin mass producing it by the end of April. The skinny new substrate will strut its stuff at SID next month -- paired with some durable Dragontrail, no doubt -- so we're looking forward to getting handsy with the company's new slim and trim displays. Mostly, we're just thrilled that our future phones won't look as fat in our jeans. PR's after the break.
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AGC Unveils World's Thinnest Glass Substrate for Touchscreens
0.28 mm thickness will enable lighter smartphones and tablet PCs
Tokyo, April 21, 2011 - AGC announced today it has developed the world's thinnest soda-lime
glass substrate for touchscreens, measuring just 0.28 mm, or 15% less than the currently thinnest commercial substrate at 0.33 mm, as well as being 15% lighter, promising to further shrink smartphones and tablets in the near future. Starting with mass production using the float process later this month, AGC expects annual sales to exceed 10 billion yen (about 120 million USD) in 2013.
Glass touchscreens in smartphones and tablets comprise a tough cover material and an underlying layer of substrate material embedded with electrodes. Soda-lime glass is an ideal substrate material for touchscreens because it maintains form when subjected to heat, resists discoloring due to ultraviolet radiation, accepts chemical strengthening and is easily processed.
AGC, under its Grow Beyond strategy, is building new foundations for growth through innovative solutions for specialty glass used in displays, including DragontrailTM, a damage-resistant cover glass launched in January this year. AGC forecasts sales of its various, new electronics-related products, including its newly announced soda-lime glass substrate, and other specialty glass for displays, to exceed 100 billion yen (about 1.2 billion USD) in 2013.
AGC's soda-lime glass substrate is scheduled to be exhibited during Display Week 2011 of the Society for Information Display (SID) in Los Angeles, California, from May 15.
