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November 9, 2013 03:41 am GMT
Apple is building a manufacturing plant in Arizona that will be used by GT Advanced Technologies to make sapphire crystals for use in its products. Apple currently uses sapphire in its home buttons and camera lens covers, but several details about the material itself and the nature of its deal with GT indicate that it could be expanding its interests in the hard crystalline substance over the next several years. Sapphire, specifically synthetic, manufactured sapphire has several properties which make it of interest to Apple. First of all, sapphire is superior to glass, even Cornings Gorilla Glass material, in several ways. Synthetic sapphire has no color, as its a single crystal grown to be optically transparent making it look very similar to glass. But its also extremely hard 9 on the Mohs scale which means better scratch resistance. Chemically strengthened glass can be excellent, but sapphire is better in terms of hardness, strength, and toughness, says Matthew Hall, Director of the Center for Advanced Ceramic Technology at the Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering at Alfred University. The fracture toughness of sapphire should be around 4 times greater than Gorilla Glass about 3 MPa-m^0.5 versus 0.7 MPa-m^0.5, respectively. The hardness of sapphire will make it resistance to flaw initiation (aka starting to scratch) and its toughness is how it resists fracture once a flaw has begun (cracking altogether). This strength doesnt come without a bit of cost, Hall notes. the strength Gorilla Glass is 2.54 g/cm^3 while sapphire is 3.98 g/cm^3. Given equal-sized pieces, Gorilla Glass will always be lighter. The counter-point to the greater weight is that Apple could use thinner pieces of sapphire due to its greater strength overall. This would result in weight and thickness reduction overall, something Apple is very conscious about. You may have noticed that the latest iPad Air was reduced in thickness in part due to its use of thinner glass and IGZO display panels. Sapphire has fairly good optical qualities as well, says Hall. Both materials have roughly similar absorption properties, though sapphires reflective index is a bit higher, which would mean a tradeoff in light transmission for durability. Gorilla Glass is about 1.5 while sapphire is about 1.76 the exact number is wavelength-dependent, Hall says.The reflection that occurs at an interface is directly proportional to the refractive index difference between the two media creating that interface. The
Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/GgfGt8vpDQM/
Why Apple Bought $578M Worth Of Sapphire In Advance
Apple is building a manufacturing plant in Arizona that will be used by GT Advanced Technologies to make sapphire crystals for use in its products. Apple currently uses sapphire in its home buttons and camera lens covers, but several details about the material itself and the nature of its deal with GT indicate that it could be expanding its interests in the hard crystalline substance over the next several years. Sapphire, specifically synthetic, manufactured sapphire has several properties which make it of interest to Apple. First of all, sapphire is superior to glass, even Cornings Gorilla Glass material, in several ways. Synthetic sapphire has no color, as its a single crystal grown to be optically transparent making it look very similar to glass. But its also extremely hard 9 on the Mohs scale which means better scratch resistance. Chemically strengthened glass can be excellent, but sapphire is better in terms of hardness, strength, and toughness, says Matthew Hall, Director of the Center for Advanced Ceramic Technology at the Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering at Alfred University. The fracture toughness of sapphire should be around 4 times greater than Gorilla Glass about 3 MPa-m^0.5 versus 0.7 MPa-m^0.5, respectively. The hardness of sapphire will make it resistance to flaw initiation (aka starting to scratch) and its toughness is how it resists fracture once a flaw has begun (cracking altogether). This strength doesnt come without a bit of cost, Hall notes. the strength Gorilla Glass is 2.54 g/cm^3 while sapphire is 3.98 g/cm^3. Given equal-sized pieces, Gorilla Glass will always be lighter. The counter-point to the greater weight is that Apple could use thinner pieces of sapphire due to its greater strength overall. This would result in weight and thickness reduction overall, something Apple is very conscious about. You may have noticed that the latest iPad Air was reduced in thickness in part due to its use of thinner glass and IGZO display panels. Sapphire has fairly good optical qualities as well, says Hall. Both materials have roughly similar absorption properties, though sapphires reflective index is a bit higher, which would mean a tradeoff in light transmission for durability. Gorilla Glass is about 1.5 while sapphire is about 1.76 the exact number is wavelength-dependent, Hall says.The reflection that occurs at an interface is directly proportional to the refractive index difference between the two media creating that interface. TheOriginal Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/GgfGt8vpDQM/
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