Gizmochina first covered the story of the innovative new glass protection technology known as Miraj Diamond Glass technology and manufactured by US start-up Akhan Semiconductor in February 2017. Back then, the company was optimistic that its technology would be utilised in smartphones before the end of the year 2017. That is yet to happen but the company is presently embroiled in a dispute with Chinese tech giant Huawei technology. The dispute even resulted in the FBI carrying out a sting operation against the Chinese tech giant at CES 2019. 

Turned out that Akhan Semiconductor had gotten into talks with Huawei about licensing the technology to the smartphone manufacturer. Akhan claims the technology is 6 times stronger and 10 times more scratch-resistant than Gorilla Glass, the industry standard that generates about $3 billion in annual sales for Corning Inc. The company provided Samsung and Huawei with samples of the glass. An early sample of the Miraj Diamond Glass was shipped to Huawei’s lab in San Diego but there was an agreement that the glass would not be cut into two. This is standard practice to avoid any chance the the company’s engineers will reverse engineer the glass process if it is cut into two. However, when the glass was returned to Akhan, there were signs the glass had been cut into two and some fragments were removed. The US start-up then lodged a formal complaint with FBI and that culminated in the sting operation at CES 2019. The entire operation is documented in Bloomberg’s report which you can find on the source link below.

Read Also: Diamond Display Enabled Smartphones with Competitive Pricing Releasing By 2017 End

Huawei is not a newbie to such accusation of intellectual property theft. It hs always had such toga hanging on its neck. In 2002, Cisco Systems Inc. accused the company of stealing source code for its routers. Motorola said in a 2010 lawsuit that Huawei had successfully turned some of its Chinese-born employees into informants. And in 2012 the U.S. House Intelligence Committee labelled Huawei a national security threat and urged the government and American businesses not to buy its products. Huawei denied all the claims. The Cisco and Motorola lawsuits ended with settlements. The US Department of Justice is also suspecting Huawei of stealing protected trade secrets from T-Mobile – those pertaining to its touchscreen experience testing robot Tappy.

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The highest configuration model of the recently launched HTC U Ultra features sapphire crystal glass. After sapphires, diamonds are one of the hardest substances in the world. Akhan Semiconductor, a firm that manufactures diamonds that can be used on electronic products, is expected to release a smartphone that features a screen built with diamond glass.

The Mirage Diamond Glass manufactured by Akhan Semiconductor will be sturdier, tougher and cleaner than conventional displays, says Adam Khan, the CEO of Akhan Semiconductor. Even though the company is in discussions with well-known device manufacturers, it will be able to provide Mirage Diamond Glass to one smartphone maker and one wearable.

There are some reasons why the company has decided to work with few companies initially. One of the reasons is shortage of supply and the other one is that it wants to provide the selected companies to exclusively boast of diamond glass screens. In its current standing, Akhan Semiconductor will be build diamond glass for 10 million to 30 million smartphones. For wearables such as smartphones and fitness bands, it would be able to provide less than 1 million diamond glass.

Related: HTC U Ultra, U Play: All Official Images of Color Variants, Pre-order Details, Pricing, Availability

Conventional displays can break or get cracks easily after frequent drops. Also, screens can get scratched with things like keys. In order to prevent displays for breaking or getting scratched easily, smartphone OEMs make use of stronger Gorilla Glass that sits on top on regular displays. Using diamond glass on top of regular screens can increase its strength by 6 times and also make them 10 times harder.

Because of its natural feature of resisting dirt and water, diamond glass screens can be cleaner than conventional screens. Devices that will feature diamond glass screens can remain 800 times cooler. Smartphones featuring it is likely to feature costlier a pricing. However, according to Khan, its pricing will be similar to the Moto ShatterShield technology made available on smartphones like Moto Z Force Droid and Droid Turbo 2. At present, it costs up to $120 per phone smartphone for Motorola to use Shatterfield screen technology on its smartphones.

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