The cost of sapphire screen iPhone or early use

The latest study found that apple (Apple Inc.) and is expected to through the extremely special advanced technology (GT Advanced Technologies Inc.) sapphire material supply contracts signed, and the sapphire substrate and the glass patent lamination technology, greatly reduce the cost and the thickness of sapphire protective layer, and even make the future iPhone hard screen using sapphire material.

TechCrunch 11 reported on the sapphire substrate, the high cost of production, according to market research firm Yole D veloppement analyst Eric Virey in last year's estimate, the cost of sapphire screen up to $30, have to wait several years to $20. However, the very special had in the past years (2012) November acquisition can significantly reduce solar silicon wafer and semiconductor substrate thickness, and reduce the production cost of the enterprise Twin CREEks Twin Creeks, and is intended to be used to develop technology for thin sapphire substrate plate and touch device. In other words, Twin Creeks technology allows extreme significantly reduce the production cost of smart phones sapphire screen.

In addition, according to the U.S. patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in a title released in September 12th this year as "Sapphire laminate (Sapphire Laminates)" patent files, displays the contents of Apple has found sapphire and glass paste and (sapphire-on-glass), which can make the sapphire glass screen thickness less than 1 mm (mm good).

Because the cost is cheaper than the sapphire glass, so Apple has glass as the in-cell embedded touch panel material, and sapphire laminate patent technology can make the thin Apple sapphire substrate very special and cheap in-cell touch glass substrate bonded together, and significantly lower the manufacturing cost of sapphire glass substrate. This could mean that the iPhone will take a few more years than most analysts had expected to use a sapphire protective layer.

Very special advanced in November 4th announced the signing of a multi-year contract with apple sapphire material supply. Pole will have / operate ASF ore smelting furnace and related equipment, the production of sapphire material in Apple Arizona plant, very special estimate will employ more than 700 people in the local. Apple will pay $578 million in advance to. Very special since 2015 will be shipped to apple in five years.

In addition, AppleInsider reported, according to the U.S. patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced in September 12th the patent application, apple in a title as "Sapphire laminate (Sapphire Laminates)" patent archives, description of sapphire used in consumer electronics device production process. The patent was originally issued in March, the goal is to reduce the processing cost of sapphire, in order to be extremely resistant to scratch the panel protection layer, and even become part of the device screen.

Apple patent content and cover the sapphire substrate bonding (lamination) process, such as two pieces of sapphire fit (sapphire-on-sapphire), sapphire and glass paste and (sapphire-on-glass) and other applications. In addition, the sapphire substrate thickness of the bonding process will not exceed 1 cm (mm).

Japanese mobile phone / tablet computer intelligence intelligence blog rbmen quoted Bloomberg News November 10th reported that, according to sources pointed out that apple is working on the development of next-generation iPhone products equipped with pressure sensors and curved glass. According to reports, apple is developing 2 new iPhone dimensions are 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, and is expected in the second half of 2014 on sale.