If you ever wondered how thin glass could be, how’s 100 microns for you? That’s about the thickness of a piece of copy paper, according to Corning, who is today announcing the next iteration of its strong substrate, Willow Glass.
Willow Glass is meant to be produced on the cheap, but provides a flexibility that allows the substrate to bend and adapt to different form factors without sacrificing its strength. The company details this in a video (after the break) that shows off the potential use cases for the glass. Ultimately, what we’re excited about is seeing Willow Glass in smartphones, as the company claims it is perfect for use with thin OLED displays.
It will support thinner backplanes and color filters for both organic light emitting diodes (OLED) and liquid crystal displays (LCD) in high performance, portable devices such as smartphones, tablets, and notebook computers. This new, ultra-slim flexible glass will also help develop conformable (curved) displays for immersive viewing or mounting on non-flat surfaces.
Earlier this year, Samsung announced that it would begin using flexible displays on its devices in the future, while Corning announced Gorilla Glass 2 which would ship on the Galaxy S III. The two companies seem to be complementing one another, as Samsung’s Super AMOLED and Corning’s Willow Glass seem to be the perfect combination.
Check after the break for a demonstration video of Willow Glass being created using a “roll-to-roll” process.
Source: Corning
Via: PhoneArena
