Corning Flexible Willow Glass Revealed For Ultra-Slim Power

At the Society for Information Display's Display Week in Boston, Corning has revealed that they've begun working on their next-generation flexible Willow Glass. This glass will be made for what we must assume will be flexible displays on mobile devices and will allow the possibility of displays being "wrapped" around a device or structure. Corning Willow Glass is able to be processed at temperatures up to 500 degrees C, this allowing manufacturers to move forward with continuous "roll-to-roll" processes, a "long awaited industry milestone" in manufacturing efficiency.

This next-generation glass will allow curved displays to be a reality and will support the creation of thinner backplates as well as brighter displays. Dr. Dipak Chowdhury, division vice president and Willow Glass program director spoke this week on the creation of this glass and how it will move the industry forward.

"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. 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." – Chowdhury

Have a peek at what Corning means when they describe a roll-to-roll process here:

Then take note that Willow Glass will be made using Corning's proprietary fusion process, this process making it possible to create glass that is just 100 microns thick – as thin as a sheet of copy paper! Stay tuned as we find out which devices will be working with Willow Glass first!

BONUS: Have a peek at how Ultra-slim flexible glass will benefit displays here: