Corning announced the commercialization of its Eagle XG Slim, a new line of thin glass substrates, at Display Taiwan 2010 in Taipei on June 9. While the initial focus is on enabling lighter-weight portable devices, with glass sizes up to 5G at 0.4mm thick, Corning will add more sizes and thicknesses to the line to support larger applications like LCD TV.
"As the first to supply commercial volumes of 0.5mm glass and now 0.4mm glass, Corning is pleased to apply its technology leadership to help enable the industry's continued advancement," said James P Clappin, president, Corning Display Technologies. "Eagle XG Slim glass will allow device makers to reduce costs and provide a greener product while creating the sleek, multifunctional devices consumers desire."
Currently, most panel makers begin with 0.5mm thick substrates for portable devices, and then employ a costly thinning process that uses chemicals to reduce the thickness of the glass. Corning's proprietary fusion process forms thin glass of pristine surface quality, ready to use as-formed. Thin input glass requires no additional panel thinning to achieve weight and thickness targets. Benefits include a lower total cost, a simplified supply chain, and reduced energy consumption.
Additionally, the new substrates will leverage the Eagle XG composition, the environmentally friendly glass substrate, making devices even more recyclable.
Corning will produce Eagle XG Slim at its plants in Asia, utilizing its worldwide supply chain. Samsung Corning Precision Materials will also supply the product line to customers in Korea.
Moving forward, Corning plans to develop 0.3mm substrates for glass sizes that support portable electronic devices and to broaden the line to include gen sizes that support TVs and other large displays.