Future iPhones could come with stronger cover glass that is difficult to break. It will interest you to know that Apple is one of the very few companies that has got its marketing right. The company has introduced us to several marketing terms like Retina Display, Face ID, and more. Today U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has published a new Apple patent detailing stronger cover display and housing glass for future devices.
The patent explains how Spiral Grain Coatings on iPhone’s glass structure can make it stronger and more resilient to damages. Interestingly, the glass can also be used on other Apple products like iMac and even Apple Watch. The company website already states “Creating tougher glass isn’t rocket science. It’s molecular science.” Apple’s latest patent falls in line with its marketing mission statement.
Many of the recent iPhones come with a glass back. Needless to say, the glass back is susceptible to scratches and even cracks in some cases. Apple believes that anti-reflection coatings and anti-scratch coatings are not up to the mark. This is because the coatings can potentially create stress concentration which in turn can cause the glass to break at elevated stress levels.
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The patent mentions a transparent housing with a glass layer placed over the front face of the device. According to the patent, thin-film layers can be sprayed on the housing with the help of any vapor deposition technique like the vapor deposition. The coating will serve multiple purposes and is expected to offer anti-reflection, anti-scratch, and opaque layer. In other words, it seems like one solution to all structural problems.
The glass structure will be created by using multiple coating layers created by using polycrystalline materials with grains grown in an interlaced spiral configuration. The above image shows the arrangement of interlaced spiral gains in a coating. It is very common for iPhone displays to break when dropped. If the technology in above patent is implemented successfully, future Apple products will be sturdier and relatively difficult to break.
[via USPTO]
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