New Corning glass for high-end mobile devices

09 Jan 2008

Jade advanced display glass is designed specifically for low-temperature polysilicon and OLED applications.

Unlike the glass normally used for display applications, the new Jade glass needs no secondary heat treatment or polishing to meet the surface and thermal stability requirements of the low-temperature polysilicon (LTPS) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) manufacturing processes. This will lower costs and increase design flexibility for manufacturers, while consumers will see more compact mobile devices with brighter displays, higher resolution and longer battery life, according to the company.

"While much of the current market focus is on the overwhelming success of LCD TV, it's the small device arena that historically has been a test bed for new technologies, and that market continues to expand on a unit basis," said James Clappin, president of Corning Display Technologies. LTPS and active-matrix OLED applications of the type supported by Jade now represent 20% of the small- and medium-display market, and this is expected to grow to 33% by 2011.

The LTPS process is more demanding in terms of temperature, surface and dimensional requirements than the amorphous silicon (a-Si) process used in the manufacture of LCDs for TVs and monitors. Previously, LTPS-LCD producers had to employ conventional a-Si glass with secondary heat treatment or special polishing, which can degrade the surface quality and sheet attributes of the substrate. Jade is claimed to demonstrate enhanced thermal stability, which makes such treatments unnecessary.