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Corning Willow Glass is flexible, bendable, could define the future of displays

Corning Willow Glass is flexible, bendable, could define the future of displays

Posted: 04 Jun 2012, 08:39, by Victor H.

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Corning Willow Glass is flexible, bendable, could define the future of displays

If you don’t think that glass can bend like shown in the image below, you’re wrong. Corning has just proved this with its new Willow Glass, a type of glass made using 100-micron technology.

This type of glass could be used for LCD and OLED displays, and the biggest advantage it brings is reduced weight and thickness of the actual device. Now, what’s also remarkable is that even at the razor thin 100-microns, the Willow Glass still retains the toughness and resistance to scratches of the familiar Gorilla Glass.

The immediate use will be in smartphones, but the glass could end up in all sorts of different products - solar cells and lighting units. There’s a video which is just as beautiful as the product itself, showing how Corning rolls Gorilla Glass. It’s all below, along with the full press release.

source: Corning

Press Release

Corning Launches Ultra-Slim Flexible Glass

Corning® Willow™ Glass will help enable new, thinner applications and could revolutionize display manufacturing

CORNING, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW) announced the launch of Corning® Willow™ Glass, an ultra-slim flexible glass, which could revolutionize the shape and form of next-generation consumer electronic technologies. The company made the announcement today at the Society for Information Display's Display Week, an industry tradeshow in Boston.

Corning Willow Glass will help enable thin, light and cost-efficient applications including today's slim displays and the smart surfaces of the future. The thinness, strength, and flexibility of the glass has the potential to enable displays to be "wrapped" around a device or structure. As well, Corning Willow Glass can be processed at temperatures up to 500° C. High temperature processing capability is essential for today's high end displays, and is a processing condition that cannot be supported with polymer films. Corning Willow Glass will enable the industry to pursue high-temperature, continuous "roll-to-roll" processes – similar to how newsprint is produced - that have been impossible until now.

It will support thinner backplanes and color filters for both organic light emitting diodes (OLED) and liquid crystal displays (LCD) in high performance, portable devices such as smartphones, tablets, and notebook computers. This new, ultra-slim flexible glass will also help develop conformable (curved) displays for immersive viewing or mounting on non-flat surfaces.

Corning Willow Glass is formulated to perform exceptionally well for electronic components such as touch sensors, as well as leveraging glass's natural hermetic properties as a seal for OLED displays and other moisture and oxygen-sensitive technologies.

"Displays become more pervasive each day and manufacturers strive to make both portable devices and larger displays thinner. Corning Willow Glass provides the substrate performance to maintain device quality in a thin and light form factor," said Dr. Dipak Chowdhury, division vice president and Willow Glass program director. "Currently manufacturing in a sheet-to-sheet process, we expect Corning Willow Glass to eventually allow customers to switch to high throughput, efficient roll-to-roll processing, a long-awaited industry milestone."

Like Corning's other leading-edge glass substrates, including EAGLE XG® Slim and Corning LotusTM Glass, Corning Willow Glass is produced using the company's proprietary fusion process. Advances in fusion forming have made it possible to produce glass that is 100 microns thick – about the thickness of a sheet of copy paper. Even at that thickness, it provides hermetic sealing to sensitive components, while also providing excellent optical, thermal, and surface properties.

Corning is currently shipping samples of its Willow Glass to customers developing new display and touch applications. The company is also collaborating with research institutions, customers, and equipment makers to develop an ecosystem of compatible process equipment, including optimized process design.

Although initially being launched as an advanced display substrate, Corning is actively working on other potential applications for its Willow Glass, including use in lighting and flexible solar cells.

"Corning will continue to develop and improve innovative glass products to enable the high-performance, game-changing displays that will drive tomorrow's increasingly diverse electronics markets," Chowdhury said.

For more information, please see www.corning.com/WILLOW.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995), which are based on current expectations and assumptions about Corning's financial results and business operations, that involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include: the effect of global political, economic and business conditions; conditions in the financial and credit markets; currency fluctuations; tax rates; product demand and industry capacity; competition; reliance on a concentrated customer base; manufacturing efficiencies; cost reductions; availability of critical components and materials; new product commercialization; pricing fluctuations and changes in the mix of sales between premium and non-premium products; new plant start-up or restructuring costs; possible disruption in commercial activities due to terrorist activity, armed conflict, political or financial instability, natural disasters, adverse weather conditions, or major health concerns; adequacy of insurance; equity company activities; acquisition and divestiture activities; the level of excess or obsolete inventory; the rate of technology change; the ability to enforce patents; product and components performance issues; retention of key personnel; stock price fluctuations; and adverse litigation or regulatory developments. These and other risk factors are detailed in Corning's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the day that they are made, and Corning undertakes no obligation to update them in light of new information or future events.

About Corning Incorporated

Corning Incorporated (www.corning.com) is the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics. Drawing on more than 160 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge, Corning creates and makes keystone components that enable high-technology systems for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications and life sciences. Our products include glass substrates for LCD televisions, computer monitors and laptops; ceramic substrates and filters for mobile emission control systems; optical fiber, cable, hardware & equipment for telecommunications networks; optical biosensors for drug discovery; and other advanced optics and specialty glass solutions for a number of industries including semiconductor, aerospace, defense, astronomy, and metrology.

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1. bobfreking55 posted on 04 Jun 2012, 08:44 6 4

Galaxy S IV.

15. Ivan6479 posted on 04 Jun 2012, 16:52 1 1

Actually Samsung has been working on their own flexible displays and they shouldn't be too far away, so lets keep are fingers crossed that it does end up in the Galaxy S IV.

2. mercorp posted on 04 Jun 2012, 09:36 1 0

Youm+this
=a marriage made in heaven!

3. OpTiMuS_BlAcK posted on 04 Jun 2012, 09:37 0 0

So when you touch the screen it will flex?

13. Ivan6479 posted on 04 Jun 2012, 16:29 0 0

I seriously doubt that, but it will definitely flex and absorb impact when needed, which should mean no more cracked displays!! :)

4. hung2900 posted on 04 Jun 2012, 09:53 4 0

Flexible and unbreakable -> No more drop test!

5. spiderpig2894 posted on 04 Jun 2012, 09:56 0 1

i dont like flexible glass on the screen. it feels like it is a resistive touchscreen. but maybe manufacturers can avoid it when applied on products

6. clevername posted on 04 Jun 2012, 10:33 4 0

Being paired with the display, and touch sensor would probably give it some rigidity. Especially if all parts of the display are bought as close together as possible.

7. WirelessCon posted on 04 Jun 2012, 13:13 0 2

Very cool. This is a much needed technology. Samsung should buy Corning right now.

14. pegasso posted on 04 Jun 2012, 16:35 1 0

samsung and corning already formed their partnership since 1973.
no need to buy nothing.

8. EasyMade posted on 04 Jun 2012, 14:02 0 2

Corning can buy Samsung, Apple, LG, Facebook altogether and still have billions to spare...this ain't no nickel and dime company

10. WirelessCon posted on 04 Jun 2012, 14:23 0 0

I had no idea.

12. WirelessCon posted on 04 Jun 2012, 14:27 1 0

Looks like Samsung already has a partnership with Corning under the highly original name: Samsung Corning Precision Glass.

9. greatGreekGeek posted on 04 Jun 2012, 14:18 0 1

Corning Inc. was found around 1850(damn me) and the gorilla glass was developed around 1960(under a different name, o'course). And actually it was Steve Jobs who first used gorilla glass in the original iPhone. And Corning has only seen the skies since then.

11. greatGreekGeek posted on 04 Jun 2012, 14:24 2 0

waiting for the time when we'll just carry such bendable transparent strips in our pockets instead of the fancy stuff we have right now.

16. phil2n posted on 04 Jun 2012, 23:28 0 0

put that display on LUmia.. Polycarbonate + flexible body and Screen = Unbreakable with windows 8

17. troutsy posted on 05 Jun 2012, 06:59 0 0

Allowing the PCB to be the most rigid part in the phone = fail.

18. blazee posted on 05 Jun 2012, 18:51 0 0

hmm this sound something like.. plastic

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Corning Willow Glass is flexible, bendable, could define the future of displays

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18 Comments Follow Following

1. bobfreking55 posted on 04 Jun 2012, 08:44 6 4

15. Ivan6479 posted on 04 Jun 2012, 16:52 1 1

2. mercorp posted on 04 Jun 2012, 09:36 1 0

3. OpTiMuS_BlAcK posted on 04 Jun 2012, 09:37 0 0

13. Ivan6479 posted on 04 Jun 2012, 16:29 0 0

4. hung2900 posted on 04 Jun 2012, 09:53 4 0

5. spiderpig2894 posted on 04 Jun 2012, 09:56 0 1

6. clevername posted on 04 Jun 2012, 10:33 4 0

7. WirelessCon posted on 04 Jun 2012, 13:13 0 2

14. pegasso posted on 04 Jun 2012, 16:35 1 0

8. EasyMade posted on 04 Jun 2012, 14:02 0 2

10. WirelessCon posted on 04 Jun 2012, 14:23 0 0

12. WirelessCon posted on 04 Jun 2012, 14:27 1 0

9. greatGreekGeek posted on 04 Jun 2012, 14:18 0 1

11. greatGreekGeek posted on 04 Jun 2012, 14:24 2 0

16. phil2n posted on 04 Jun 2012, 23:28 0 0

17. troutsy posted on 05 Jun 2012, 06:59 0 0

18. blazee posted on 05 Jun 2012, 18:51 0 0

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