One of the most dramatic situations for owners of an iPad occurs when it slips from our fingers and falls with its corner. The screen glass explodes and the famous spider web forms, rendering it practically useless. The repair is always very expensive, since the materials that make it up are usually among the most expensive among all the components of the device. A new apple patent shows that they are working for strengthen the protective glass on the next generations of iPad and iPhone.
Patently Apple, that wonderful snitch from the Cupertino investigation processes, is warning us of a patent that has that laudable goal. The document that has been processed in Europe is old enough so that the technology has been used even in the iPhone 5, whose resistance tests were more than positive, before being registered.
The Californian company has always been a bit secretive about the components of its screens, but it is believed that perhaps it was Corning and its Gorilla Glass that is to blame for the resistance of the screen of its latest smartphone.
The process described by the patent is different. It is based on a technique they call Glass Ion Exchange Bath or ion exchange bath glass. Perhaps it is a necessary and final part in the manufacture of that glass with tactile capacity built into its cells that Phil Schiller spoke about a while ago. What is sought is that touch sensors are integrated into the panel, getting thinner and lighter screens. This technology tends to target small screens, but both in the iPhone and the iPad, especially the mini, and the Mac Book, we are not talking about very large screens.
Being thinner, its weakness must be balanced with a coating that reinforces. The patent explains how to carry out this bath and what its objectives are. We hope to see these improvements in the next iPad 5 and iPhone 6.
Source: Patently Apple