It would be easy to think that Apple’s sapphire iPhone dreams went down the pan when GT Advanced Technologies went bust, but Apple’s nothing if not persistent.
Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple describing a new method for manufacturing sapphire displays by irradiating the sapphire crystal and then using a laser and “second gas medium” to slice it into the super-thin sheets Apple requires.
Photo: USPTO/Apple
As Apple’s application explains, sapphire crystal is paradoxically both incredibly hard and very brittle. The sapphire itself rates 9.0 on the Mohs scale, which means that it is capable of scratching almost all other minerals — including physical cutting tools.
However, it is also delicate in the sense that small defects in the surface or edge of a sapphire substrate can result in “dramatic strength reductions.”
To solve this, Apple’s efficient laser-cutting patent application would save wear and tear on physical sapphire cutting tools, while also lowering the number of defects made. This in turn would have a positive impact on the all-important yield, necessary to churn out tens of millions of devices.
True, Apple could use this technology for focusing on smaller sapphire components like camera lens covers and Apple Watch displays, but the patent application specifically mentions “mobile phone” as a desired category. All of the diagrams (such as the one above) also show iPhone-size displays being cut.
Now Apple just needs to work out where it’ll get the massive sapphire quantities it needs for its devices.
Source: USPTO
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
15 responses to “Apple still determined to bring sapphire displays to iPhone”
Where will Apple make this glass?
Earth.
Are you sure? As I understand it, Apple will be buying the International Space Station as an out of this world manufacturing facility!
“but Apple’s nothing if not persistent.” ?!
What’s your question?
The sentence makes no sense, it should say: “but Apple is nothing less than persistent”
You’ve never heard someone say “something’s nothing if not something”? It’s a commonly-used colloquialism.
I hear/read a lot of people write/say a lot of stupid things.
Let’s hope that Apple is more than just persistent! I think it is!
GTAT has over 2000 furnaces ready to be put into action. Of course Apple will need to add that backup power source that GTAT asked for originally. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Apple fund a new division for producing sapphire. GTAT would be happy to sell them the furnaces.
Apple can use it with their future Liquidmetal cases. /s
I don’t know why Apple didn’t buy that company when it was going under.
Good question, but Apple is known for “design” not for actual manufacturing. As a long time Apple user (among other OS’s) for 30 years by not actually taking on the manufacturing yourself you don’t take on the risk and you keep your profits high.
Everyone wants to be an Apple supplier, just ask GTAT, and they will do anything for that opportunity and sadly not recognize the cannibalistic attitude Apple has towards its vendors. I suspect the goals were absurdly high and Apple’s demands were not truly attainable. The money they lost wouldn’t cover the executive bonuses for a year.
Sapphire has already been put onto a SmartPhone so clearly at least one company can do it, even if Apple still struggles with it. Sure it can be said yield is the issue but everyone has yield issues and they have to deal with it.
So, they’ll solve the manufacturing biz up to a certain impressive level… The phones will be scratch-proof, but 1 in every ten thousand will crack when someone inadvertently taps on the screen with their fingernail!