> SHINE LIKE A DIAMOND
Is diamond glass in your phone’s future? We’ve seen sapphire glass. We’ve seen ceramic glass. Is diamond glass next?
Diamond is one of the hardest structures ever discovered, and some manufacturers believe that it could hold the key to creating the toughest smartphone glass ever made. If it’s ever made.
We’re saying “if” because Akhan Semiconductor promised we’d see its Miraj Diamond Glass in a smartphone in 2017. That deadline came and went, with a new target of 2019. That didn’t happen either. The technology is now in its second generation, but you still can’t buy it in a phone.
There’s no doubt that the nano crystalline film that makes Miraj Diamond Glass is tough — three times tougher than Ceramic Shield, according to CEO Adam Khan, and tougher than the glass used in Tesla’s Cybertruck demo. But we’re getting strong echoes of the iPhone 6 sapphire glass we’ve talked about already; manufacturers aren’t going to get on board if the technology can’t be manufactured at scale to consistently high standards for an acceptable cost.