Diamond covered smartphones are coming in 2019

[captain_to_fire]

Source: CNET [here & here], Akhan Semiconductor

 

Quote

 

Screen breakage is a common concern. Akhan's diamond glass uses a nanocrystal pattern that randomly arranges the crystals, instead of lining them up along their crystal planes -- that arrangement discourages deep cracks from forming and damaging the materials underneath.

 

Made with lab-grown diamonds, Akhan Semiconductor's Mirage Diamond Glass promises to be stronger than other materials used to cover the phone's fragile electronic display. It can be applied in conjunction with other, like Gorilla Glass, as a top layer.

 

Now, Khan says that the promising new technology is being actively tested with devicemakers, the identities of which Khan isn't ready to reveal. Akhan's partners are stress-testing the diamond glass' strength, and making sure the surface transmits electrical signals well, so your finger can navigate the touchscreen without delay.

Now I want to know the molecular geometry used by Akhan if it's the same or slightly different. Naturally occurring diamonds like the ones mined from Kimberley, South Africa follow the tetrahedral molecular geometry where each singly bonded carbon atoms (covalent bond) have a bond angle of 109.5 degrees.

 

The idea of lab grown/synthetic diamonds isn't new and many companies are already doing it for jewelry, construction, and electronics. Synthetic diamonds are synthesized mostly by simulating events that happened millions of years ago of subjecting carbon to high heat and high pressure (1500°C/1773.15K, 5GPa/49346.16 atm) but that is just one way of synthesizing synthetic diamonds. Akhan claims that their proprietary synthetic diamond is stronger:

Quote

 

Miraj Diamond™ Glass utilizes lab grown, thin-film diamond specially tuned for optical application. The resultant structures show dramatic improvement to performance, reliability, and asthetics, with third party  testing veriying Miraj Diamond™ Glass performance  >6x Stronger, >10x Harder, & running over 800x cooler than leading flagship competitor glass.

 

Miraj Diamond™ Glass has been developed for a variety of commercial display & camera lens glass types including chemically hardened aluminosilicate (e.g. Corning Gorilla Glass®), BK-7 (Flat and Curved), Fused Silica, & Sapphire--specifically targeting the needs of smartphone, wearable, automotive and Virtual Reality (VR/AR) systems. The end result? Displays and camera systems which are harder, stronger, & thinner while running cooler to the touch, all with the brilliance and beauty of real diamond.

Now Akhan says that more work has to be done including reducing reflectance to make reading in direct sunlight less of an issue and without resorting to cranking up the brightness to 100%. They also say they're planning to release this to one smartphone OEM and one screen protector vendor first and later expand them to fitness trackers. I think the ones working in construction will largely benefit from this as well as extremely clumsy hot mess people. Though to be sure there would be a lot of YouTube videos like the ones below coming ones this diamond cover becomes mainstream.

 

[BluJay614]

I wouldn't buy it. Not worth my money.

[Drak3]

I'd buy one, and a shit ton of replacement phones and batteries not have to buy another.

[TVwazhere]

Personally I've owned smart phones since 2010, and other than a small miner crack along a break point in one of my former phone.s edge I've never had a phone crack the screen. Part of the reason being I often bought HTC phones which used all aluminum housings (I never used cases, though one time I did use a scratch resistant screen but it peeled off after about a year) My S8+ with it's glass back got partially ripped off due to some adhesive, but I dont count that because it's not something a normal user would encounter. 

 

For me personally, a diamond strength phone isnt justifiable for me since I (try to be) really careful with my phone, but I know some people who could DEFINITELY use something like this.

[TheRandomness]

Why not just do what HTC did and put a sapphire screen on the phone? Cheaper, somewhat easier to make and still technically more durable than glass. 

[Doobeedoo]

That be awesome, also those self reparing materials for phones demoed. 

[Eduard the weeb]

Think about being like 

 

Honey I can either buy you a useless and overpriced diamond ring or a equally over priced phone to propose with which you want ?

[Eduard the weeb]

also my phone right now some cheap samsung is near industactable I have dropped it wall running in downtown on the side walk really hard and down 15ft of starights and no damage lol

 

this was in the same weekend.

[Hiitchy]

How much would it cost if this screen cracks and needs to be repaired? Imho, I don't know if it's self repairing, but I'm extremely clumsy with my S8 to the point where I could have cracked the entire screen and back. I'll take a $75 Otterbox defender over the diamond stuff. 

[captain_to_fire]

6 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

Why not just do what HTC did and put a sapphire screen on the phone? Cheaper, somewhat easier to make and still technically more durable than glass. 

I've read somewhere just a few years ago (I can't remember where) that sapphire is more scratch resistant that Gorilla Glass but it's more brittle than Gorilla Glass. I don't know if that's the case until now or improvements have been made to the sapphire crystal.

[captain_to_fire]

3 minutes ago, Eduard the weeb said:

Think about being like 

 

Honey I can either buy you a useless and overpriced diamond ring or a equally over priced phone to propose with which you want ?

Is this a marriage proposal or a pre-nup? 

[BluJay614]

Just now, hey_yo_ said:

I've read somewhere just a few years ago (I can't remember where) that sapphire is more scratch resistant that Gorilla Glass but it's more brittle than Gorilla Glass. I don't know if that's the case until now or improvements have been made to the sapphire crystal.

Watch JerryRigEverything. Sapphire is harder then the glass used in pretty much every smartphone out there.

 

11 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Personally I've owned smart phones since 2010, and other than a small miner crack along a break point in one of my former phone.s edge I've never had a phone crack the screen. Part of the reason being I often bought HTC phones which used all aluminum housings (I never used cases, though one time I did use a scratch resistant screen but it peeled off after about a year) My S8+ with it's glass back got partially ripped off due to some adhesive, but I dont count that because it's not something a normal user would encounter. 

 

For me personally, a diamond strength phone isnt justifiable for me since I (try to be) really careful with my phone, but I know some people who could DEFINITELY use something like this.

Personally, and I'm rather sad about this, the only phone I've broken the screen on was an LG V20. How did I do it? It fell out of my pocket while I was riding a bike into a Wal-Mart parking lot. The worst part: the phone/glass screen protector I had ordered off Amazon arrived the next day.... LG claimed it wasn't covered under their warranty, and Sprint was gonna make me pay $300 to replace it.

[AshleyAshes]

29 minutes ago, BluJay614 said:

I wouldn't buy it. Not worth my money.

 

16 minutes ago, Eduard the weeb said:

Think about being like 

 

Honey I can either buy you a useless and overpriced diamond ring or a equally over priced phone to propose with which you want ?

ITT: People who think that diamond in industrial use costs exactly the same as diamond jewels.

[Princess Luna]

Precious stones outside industrial purpose are useless, why are jewels still appealing nowadays? I get it 100 years ago there was nothing exciting to get as a gift... so a gold and diamond necklace or something might sound alright idea but nowadays? what girl wouldn't want that fancy looking Corsair K70 LUX RGB MX Blue keyboard over some precious stones that serves nothing but paper weight

 

The more these stuff serves an actual useful role in the market the better.

[BachChain]

Didn't the last company to try this go bankrupt

[Drak3]

3 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

 

ITT: People who think that diamond in industrial use costs exactly the same as diamond jewels.

I can see the first wave of these being excessively expensive because people don't know that:

1) diamonds aren't rare

2) diaminds are mass manufactured for $10 dremel sawmax blades

[TVwazhere]

15 minutes ago, BluJay614 said:

Personally, and I'm rather sad about this, the only phone I've broken the screen on was an LG V20. How did I do it? It fell out of my pocket while I was riding a bike into a Wal-Mart parking lot. The worst part: the phone/glass screen protector I had ordered off Amazon arrived the next day.... LG claimed it wasn't covered under their warranty, and Sprint was gonna make me pay $300 to replace it.

F

[Herman Mcpootis]

4 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

 why are jewels still appealing nowadays?

you can thank De Beers' marketing campaign for making us sell one of every limb and organ for a diamond in an engagement ring

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/diamond-de-beers-marketing-campaign

[Eduard the weeb]

23 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

... do couples discuss proposal items?? o_o

I don't think so but I honestly don't know.

[Princess Luna]

1 minute ago, herman mcpootis said:

'

Tell me about it, diamond rings, second to this are those overpriced wedding parties, such a futile expense... I'm glad my boyfriend and I are divergent to these social norms

[captain_to_fire]

7 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

I get it 100 years ago there was nothing exciting to get as a gift... so a gold and diamond necklace or something might sound alright idea but nowadays? what girl wouldn't want that fancy looking Corsair K70 LUX RGB MX Blue keyboard over some precious stones that serves nothing but paper weight

Because jewelries especially diamond jewelries in a 22K gold earing, necklace or ring doesn't depreciate in price and can be sold again. Electronics no matter how expensive they are will depreciate in a short period of time. That's why I pity those who bought the Hermes edition Apple Watch as I consider it a dead investment.

4 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

I can see the first wave of these being excessively expensive because people don't know that:

1) diamonds aren't rare

2) diaminds are mass manufactured for $10 dremel sawmax blades

Is that the one used to cut glass?

Edited February 5, 2018 by hey_yo_

[BluJay614]

3 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

F

?

[Drak3]

Just now, hey_yo_ said:

Is that the one used to cut glass?

No, ceramic tile.

 

 

Or FRP, if you like buying $80 saws every 4 jobs.

Or wood, if you like the smell of smoke.

[Herman Mcpootis]

5 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Tell me about it, diamond rings, second to this are those overpriced wedding parties, such a futile expense... I'm glad my boyfriend and I are divergent to these social norms

and De Beers was pretty much monopolizing the diamond supply to keep prices high too, so you end up having to pay top dollar for some piece of carbon  and how often are you gonna be wearing the ring anyways?

[BluJay614]

14 minutes ago, AshleyAshes said:

 

ITT: People who think that diamond in industrial use costs exactly the same as diamond jewels.

Okay, why don't you tell me exactly how much you think this is gonna cost? No one uses sapphire anymore, so why jump into Diamond?