We already know about glass that bends. Now we know that Samsung may be on the verge of using it on an upcoming phone — perhaps even the Galaxy Fold 2.
According to patent and trademark diggers LetsGoDigital, Samsung has just registered a new brand for a material called Samsung Ultra Thin Glass. This material can be used for all kinds of displays in all kinds of devices, from smartphones to large format TV sets.
This ultra thin glass will be as thick as a human hair at about 30 nanometers. In theory it will be so thin that it will be able to bend without breaking while maintaining the scratch-resistant nature of glass. This will fix one of the current problems of foldable phones: plastic displays that are easily scratched.
The Korean company has signed an agreement with Dowoo Insys, which according to ET News is rapidly expanding its manufacturing capacity. Samsung Venture Investment has invested 10 million dollars in the glass making company. According to the Korean IT rag, “Samsung Electronics recently introduced its clamshell foldable smartphone that is expected to be applied with UTG panel.”
According to ET News, Samsung Display can get ahead of the game thanks to that alliance with Dowoo Insys. "Although Chinese panel manufacturers are also interested in foldable display and are working on supply and demand of UTG panel, there will not be any significant competitor to Samsung Display for the next three years,“ an industry insider told the outlet.
The holy grail of glass
Smartphone glass supplier Corning — which makes the glass surfaces for the iPhone and many other flagships — announced last March that it was working on an ultra-thin glass that could fold.
That's why other manufacturers are racing to get the holy grail of bendable glass. Japanese company AGC, for example, is working on this technology too. In fact, this company is ahead of Corning, already reaching a bend radius of 2.5 millimeters without cracking.
As foldable phones get more popular in 2020 — with the release of the Razr, the Fold 2, and other phones from other Chinese companies — we can expect this magical bendable glass to reach the market soon. And perhaps, as a side effect of this quest, we may finally get true shatterproof glass in every device. I sure hope so, because I have lost count of all the screens I have broken.
