With high probability, we will not see the protective glass Gorilla Glass in the line of smartphones iPhone. This week, Apple filed in the Office of Patent and Trademark Office United States an application for registration of a patent entitled "Strengthening Sapphire by saturation of ions". The present technical documentation describes the treatment options sapphire glass protects the display of the mobile device.
Apple engineers have found a way to increase the strength of sapphire panel, eliminating the step of chemical treatment of the material. The paper describes the technology saturation panel ions. In particular, Apple provides ions to fill the voids of the sapphire substrate, thereby forming an amorphous or non-crystalline structure. Among show a significant increase in the strength of the thus treated glass in comparison with other methods.
Taking into account the previously submitted a patent that describes the mount sapphire glass to the body by filling specially designed recesses in the substrate, it is obviously striving kupertintsev as soon as possible to introduce in series production of the new technology.
To date, Apple uses glass, made of synthetic sapphire, to protect the camera and fingerprint scanner iPhone. Despite the fact that Gorilla Glass to some extent satisfied by its performance scratch resistance and strength of the majority of users, according to insider information in the factories Apple is already the active production of a new type of safety glass.
Sapphire is an inherent part of modern watches and expensive medium segments. This material exhibits excellent resistance to scratching, which means that even intentionally scratch the surface of the sapphire is virtually impossible. With it can handle except diamond, which is four times stronger. However, one of the downsides of sapphire glass is a low resistance to damage. Apple patent-pending technology is designed to address this shortcoming.