Corning Glass, Inc. made a name for itself whenSteve Jobs chosethe Kentucky-based company to supply cover glass for the original iPhone because he wanted the device’s touchscreen to ooze premium quality. Nowadays, Corning glass is found protecting mobile screens used on the vast majority of smartphones and tablets out there.
Although the company unveiled the ultra-slimWillow Glasslast June, that product is aimed at mobile devices that incorporate flexible displays and couldtheoretically be usedfor a rumorediWatch. Ahead of CES, the firmlaunchedits 40 percent more scratch resistant and 50 percent strongerGorilla Glass 3.
And just yesterday, they announced the commercial launch of Corning Lotus XT, a second-generation glass substrate aimed at high-performance displays…
Corning will showcase the technology at the Society for Information Display’sDisplay Weekin Vancouver May 21-23. While a media release doesn’t specifically mention Apple (not that we expected that, anyway), the accompanying product demonstration video features an iPad at mark 2:09, have a look below.
They developed Lotus XT Glass specifically to cater for high-performance mobile displays that achieve enhanced brightness and ultra-high resolutions (can you say Retina?) by packing in advanced transistors made at higher processing temperatures.
OLED technology, for instance, requires these transistors to help enable emissive displays with vivid colors.
The new Lotus XT Glass has“best-in-class”total pitch variation. Total pitch, the distance features move during panel processing, is usually measured in microns or parts per million and is integral to efficient panel manufacturing.
What Lotus XT Glass enables, according to Corning, is improved thermal and dimensional stability over higher temperatures, in turn allowing for higher yields – exactly what Apple needs. Other display features Lotus XT Glass helps achieve include fast response times, bright picture quality and energy efficiency.
The technology supports both OLED and LCD displays that use either low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) or oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) backplanes. Coincidentally or not,NPD DisplaySearch saidthat Apple is thought to be considering LTPS tech for the upcoming iPad mini refreshes.
LPTS is currently used in Apple’s iPhone 5 and will beallegedly featuredon the rumoredbudget iPhone. Notably,Apple recently hiredan OLED display expert from LG Display and rumor mills think the mythicaliTV could use LG Display’s OLEDpanel technology.
LG Display is alsorumored to be Apple’s main supplierof Retina-grade displays for the second-generation iPad mini.
In addition to Lotus XT Glass, Corning will also showcase its EAGLE XG Slim for a-Si displays, the flexible Willow Glass and Gorilla Glass 3 with Native Damage Resistance.
