Nippon Electric Glass has announced naming its ultra-thin glass developed for speaker diaphragms “Sonarion™.”
Sonarion™ is an ultra-thin glass specifically developed for speaker diaphragms, the core component of acoustic devices.
Ultra-thin and lightweight
Sonarion™ achieves a thickness ranging from 25µm (0.025mm) to 200µm (0.2mm), placing it among the thinnest glass materials in the world while meeting the extreme requirements for diaphragm applications.
High responsiveness and strength
Through proprietary glass composition design, Sonarion™ combines lightweight characteristics with high mechanical strength, enabling it to withstand intense vibration amplitudes and sound pressure.
Sonarion™ is a coined term combining sonar, meaning sound, and Orion, the constellation that shines brightly in the winter night sky. The name reflects the clear and transparent sound produced by this glass, evoking the brilliance of stars resonating in silence and symbolising a deep and expansive soundscape.
NEG has developed innovative diaphragms using Sonarion™ in collaboration with GAIT (Glass Acoustic Innovations), a Taiwanese company with advanced 3D processing technology for ultra-thin glass. By applying three-dimensional forming and specialised chemical strengthening treatment, the material achieves ideal acoustic characteristics.
- Compared to materials such as paper or metal, Sonarion™ offers faster sound attack and decay, delivering clearer, more precise sound with minimal distortion.
- The material inherently has high internal loss with low self‑resonance, resulting in very little colouration.
- Lightweight and highly responsive, capable of accurately reproducing the subtle nuances of delicate sounds.
- The glass surface is strengthened with a special chemical treatment, enabling it to withstand intense vibrations from heavy bass.
- Resistant to environmental changes such as temperature and humidity, and less prone to ageing over time.