Apple would work well on a folding product, but naturally would like to do better than the competition as far as folding is concerned… even if it means being demanding with LG Display and Samsung Display, its suppliers. The firm would indeed claim a folding slab that does not wrinkle.
Obviously, LG Display and Samsung Display, historical suppliers of screens for Apple, are kindly requested to develop a foldable panel without folding. It would indeed be a condition sine qua non for the creation of a folding iPhone or iPad by Apple, which would like to avoid as much as possible creases or creases on any folding products, particularly visible when this type of device gets old.
According to the sources, probably industrial, of The Electric, Apple would have asked LG and Samsung to design a “hybrid” folding Oled panel that would precisely avoid this kind of aesthetic disappointment. To do this, the two firms must find a way to combine the flexibility of folding OLED tiles (often made of plastic) and the firmness of rigid OLED tiles (based on a glass substrate) in order to avoid creases and other creases. unsightly.
A folding product… without the current defects of folding tiles
Theoretically, the method would be as follows: use the thin layer encapsulation technique to make a folding OLED screen, mixing both plastic and glass. Of course, the thing is difficult to implement from an industrial point of view. As specified AppleInsiderthis manufacturing method would indeed involve the use of lasers (necessary for the treatment of the glass parts and their varnishes) the heat of which risks deforming the plastic layers, leading to creases.
To meet Apple’s demands, Samsung and LG are working on a new ultra-thin glass substrate. With only 2 mm thick instead of the usual 5 mm, this substrate promises to be much more flexible and could be exploited to achieve the folding hybrid OLED screens dreamed of by Apple. However, this new substrate is still only at the R&D stage. Apple will probably have to wait several years before possibly being able to use it on a large scale for a new product. Note also that these hybrid Oled screens would be more suitable for medium diagonals. What guide us on the track of a folding iPad rather than on this of a possible iPhone clamshell.
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