Yoshinori Kobayashi is from AGC Electronics, part of Asahi Glass, a glass maker from Japan. He said that the display industry is getting more and more competitive. AGC thinks its technologies can help clients to develop new applications and technologies. AGC’s corporate policy is “AGC+” where the plus means using the firm’s advanced technology to create new value and deliver new opportunities.
Glass is one of the major businesses, but the firm also has advanced chemical and ceramic businesses – which Kobayashi believes is unique among glass makers. AGC claims to be a leader in PC touch and in cover glass for touch.
AGC thinks that there will be an Advanced Communication Interface (ACI) that will allow ‘always on’ communication. It will be interactive and will also be “cool and sophisticated” as there is a demand for better images. Super High resolution, lower power use and thinner displays are all needed to make this kind of ACI a reality.
AGC has developed ultra-thin glass at up to 1100mm wide and down to 50 micron thickness to allow the manufacturer of flexible displays for wearables as a carrier glass. In 2012, this was R&D, then in prototype in 2013 and got into production in 2014.
AGC has a range of different cover glasses from soda lime at the low end to DragonTail toughened glass at the higher end.
Infoverre is a new technology to bond a display direct to glass. This may allow new opportunities in retail and digital signage.
There is a new Glascene technology for projection onto transparent glass.
The company can directly form curved glass and can also combine glass with 3D polymer mouldings. A development is an embedded antenna technology that can fix an antenna onto a glass substrate. The firm also has plastic optical fibre.
