Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Apple-backed plant in Arizona to produce sapphire

This is interesting, Apple-backed plant in Arizona to produce sapphire.

On Monday, Arizona governor Jan Brewer announced that Apple will open a manufacturing facility in Mesa; that plant will be operated by GT Advanced Technologies, which will be providing sapphire for Cupertino’s products.

The plant will employ 700 workers and seems positioned to provide a lot of sapphire. Currently, Apple uses the material in relatively few places: It covers the lens on the iPhone 5c and 5s and is used as the top layer in the Touch ID sensor on the iPhone 5s. In both cases, it’s harder and provides much more scratch resistance than conventional glass.

There's some speculation that Apple could be developing it for screens which would solve scratches on an iPhone (though it might be a little more prone to shattering). The other common use of Sapphire is in watch crystals.

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