This fall, rumor has it, Apple will start selling iPhones with a sapphire screen that is just about impossible to scratch.
The supposed supplier of that sapphire, GT Advanced Technologies, can’t confirm as much. But this week the company showed me a new manufacturing process that produces inexpensive sheets of sapphire roughly half as thick as a human hair, making it possible to add a tough layer of sapphire to just about any smartphone or tablet screen relatively cheaply (see “Your Next Smartphone Screen May Be Made of Sapphire”). The manufacturing technology, known as an ion accelerator, can make fine sheets of other costly materials, so it could also lead to better and cheaper electronics and solar cells.
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