Solar-Tectic LLC (ST) announced today that in 2015 it plans to develop a new process for making sapphire glass using a technique which is patent pending at the United States Patent and trademark Office (USPTO) and which was reported on in Materials Letters, a peer reviewed journal (see "Crystalline Al2O3 on buffered soda-lime glass by e-beam").
The new sapphire glass technique involves the deposition of a crystalline Al2O3 (aluminum oxide) thin-film on an inexpensive buffered glass substrate such as ordinary soda-lime glass, using a variety of common and simple deposition techniques, thus opening the door for a potential breakthrough material which is inexpensive and easily scalable for manufacturing and commercialization.
The sapphire glass product being developed is an important part of ST technology since it can be used for the deposition of highly textured, good quality semiconductor films on inexpensive substrates for efficient photovoltaic, display, and LED electronics.
The new sapphire glass can potentially also be used as a protective cover layer for smartphones and other displays, as Al2O3 is one of the hardest materials known.
For general inquiries or for licensing of the technology, please contact Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP (davis@clm.com, 212-238-8850).
