Gorilla Glass, a specialized glass manufactured by Corning for electronics, especially handheld gadgets like smartphones is found anywhere. Over the years, Corning improved its glass and it is currently at its seventh generation called Gorilla Glass Victus. Though it is better than its predecessors, a report states that Apple and other smartphone manufacturers are looking to make Gorilla Glass even more durable by using diamond-like carbon(DLC) coatings.
A report posted on Seeking Alpha by Robert Castellano (via PhoneArena) quotes an Allstate subsidiary SquareTrade study from November 2018 that Americans dropped more than 50 million screens in 2017 and spent a whopping $3.4 billion to fix them. These repairs cost as less as $170 to up to $329.
A staggering amount of $14 billion had been spent in repairs by the people of the US from 2007 till 2017. One survey even revealed that iPhone users were six times more likely to damage their handsets than to either lose them or have stolen.
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This is the reason why Apple and other smartphone companies are considering to make use of diamond-like carbon coatings over Gorilla Glass. This coating, with its properties like low friction, high hardness, and high corrosion resistance, can improve the durability of Gorilla Glass or any aluminosilicate glass.
DLC coatings also have properties like thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity. Therefore, they can be used as protective coatings not only on displays but also on sensors and flexible semiconductors.
Currently, three companies have developed systems to coat normal glass, Corning Gorilla Glass, and other aluminosilicate glasses with diamond-like carbon coatings. Two of them are Intevac – a public company and Denton Vacuum – a company with 50-year expertise in the equipment business.
Last but not least, this coating is reported to increase the cost of per display in pennies and therefore, it may not increase the overall cost of a finished smartphone by a higher margin.
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