Goodbye To Shattered Smartphone Screens!

Scientists are developing a new technology through which smartphones could be made shatterproof and if successful then it will be a new milestone in the history of technology

Everyone gets a mini heart attack the moment one’s smartphone falls on the ground. The sound of phone making contact with the ground and breaking of glass breaks one’s heart. But with this new technology, this problem will soon vanish. A world without shattered smartphone screens sounds like a dream but researchers at the University of Akron in Ohio are hell-bent on making this dream come true.

The researchers are developing a film consisting of a transparent layer of electrodes on a polymer surface which is far more transparent, flexible and stronger than the film currently used in the smartphone. Currently screen used in the smartphone or tablet incorporates a coating of indium tin oxide, also known as ITO or tin-doped indium oxide. Although it’s electrically conductive and optically transparent, it’s also brittle and thus easily-shattered. But this new technology can emerge as a competitor to the commonly used ITO as the material is cheap to mass produce and could revolutionise and replace conventional touch screens.

Market is entering into an era of smartphones which can be bent to any extent and can be shatterproof. There are rumours that Samsung is into making a new smartphone which would be flexible and shatterproof. Same is with LG as its recently launched curved smartphone gave a hint the giant phone-maker is in the race of creating such class of smartphones. With the help of this new technology there is a possibility of creating such smartphones as the novel film retains its shape and functionality after tests in which it has been bent 1,000 times. Due to its flexibility, the transparent electrode can be fabricated in economical, mass-quantity rolls. This could end the problem of cracked smartphone screens once and for all by replacing them with this flexible touch-screen.

It’s unclear exactly when we’ll see this technology being implemented in smartphones. Still, the fact remains that researchers are pouring more time and resources into creating unbreakable smartphone, which shows that it may soon become a reality.

By Rohan Pal