Asahi Glass Co has developed ultra-thin sheet glass using the float process, measuring just 0.1 mm, roughly the thinness of a sheet of paper. Made from alkali-free glass, which is used as a glass substrate for TFT-LCDs, the thin sheet float glass will be used in next-generation displays, lighting, touchscreens and high-tech applications such as medical devices.
Asahi has extensive experience with the production of thin sheet glass. Over five years ago, the company began mass producing and shipping 0.4 mm, alkali-free glass as a TFT glass substrate. Later, the thickness was reduced to 0.3 mm. In April of this year, it began selling the world's thinnest, 0.28mm, soda-lime glass substrate for touchscreens.
Recent shifts toward increasingly thin and energy saving displays and OLED lighting are now being taken to the next level with the development of next-generation flexible displays and OLED lighting. This is creating more demand for glass materials, including glass substrates and cover glass for touchscreen panels and glass substrates for displays.
Thin sheet glass is expected to be used in such products due to its flexible shaping and light weight, as well as basic characteristics of glass such as transparency, electrical insulation and resistance to heat, chemicals and gases.
© Japan Corporate News Network
12 Comments
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goddog
This is like out of star trek. Congrats Asahi. Show the world that Japan still has it.
Serrano
They should open a factory in China to mass produce this glass at a competitive price.
papigiulio
sounds breakable :S
cnc
i bet this will end up in the rumored curved display on the iteration of the iphone. due out in September.
Frungy
So is anything crystalline.
papigiulio
yes true, but I find it harder to break a sheet of 2 cm thickness than 0,1 mm.
ebisen
papigiulio - yeah- let me see you having a 2cm sheet of glass on you new smartphone's display :~)
goddog
You guys forgot your decimal points.
timeon
Frungy, glass is amorphous, not crystalline. that's why you can see through it. but nevertheless, it probably snaps under enough pressure applied.
Scrote
These glasses feel more like plastic than glass and do not break easily; they are not brittle at all.
KnowBetter
Serrano at 08:29 AM JST - 6th June
They should open a factory in China to mass produce this glass at a competitive price
You're kidding right? That's just one of the reasons that Japan is in the crapper right now. Sending anything high tech with patents or not to China to be produced will only get your trade secrets ripped off...
astrogaijin
"This is like out of Star Trek" Ironic that you said that, I was talkng with my Unlce this weekend and how things that were in Star Trek and considered Sci-Fi that are now being used. Ie- automatic sliding doors,a flip phones, teleconfrence, video confrence.