Corning is developing glass that can be repeatedly folded, and reports that it is on track to manufacture it in quantity in a couple of years when foldable phones are in the mainstream.
“We have glasses we’ve sampled to customers, and they’re functional, but they’re not quite meeting all the requirements,” says John Bayne, senior vice president and general manager in Corning. “People either want better performance against a drop event or a tighter bend radius. We can give them one or the other; the key is to give them both.”
The company is currently using glass that is 0.1mm thick and can be bent to a 5mm radius.
“The back of the problem we’re trying to break, the technical challenge is, can you keep those tight 3- to 5-millimeter bend radii and also increase the damage resistance of the glass,” says Bayne. “That’s the trajectory we’re on.”