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Tag: Self Healing Screens

  • Future Smartphones Could Have A Self Healing Display

    Future Smartphones Could Have A Self Healing Display

    As technology moves forward, all future smartphones are expected to have wireless charging as a common feature. One thing that we have learnt from current smartphones that support wireless charging is that they are almost entirely made of glass. This means that as much hard as companies claim their glass is, there are chances of it breaking.

    That may not be the case in the near future as a team of researchers in South Korea have developed a self-healing material that can repair cracks in under thirty minutes. The material is called Elastomer and could be the answer to the fragile build of smartphones in order to support certain features.

    The LG V30+ has glass on the back

    Elastomer is able to heal itself at room temperature and at the same time, doubles the amount of the highest level of existing tensile strength. In simple words, tensile strength is the resistance of a material to breaking under tension. Something that happens to a lot of smartphones made of glass. Elastomer not only heals itself but, it also maintains the original ruggedness of the material.

    According to the research team, this new material can be used as a protective layer on smartphones. While it is hard to predict the timeline for the material to become commercially available for smartphone makers, it seems like a step in the right direction. As gadgets become thinner, their frailties against drops will invariably become more prominent and companies don’t seem to be lowering the repair costs of out of warranty devices.

    Samsung Galaxy Note8

    Right after the launch of the iPhone X, it was discovered that people who don’t opt for Apple Care might have to shell out up to US $279 to get the screen repaired. A self-healing material will definitely help the consumers save money and also use their devices a bit more freely without always worrying about the damage.

    This is not the first time we are hearing about a solution for fragile smartphones. A few months ago, it was reported that Motorola would start featuring a self-healing display on its future smartphones. Recently, students of the University of Tokyo claimed that they had discovered a self-healing glass that could be used in smartphones as well.

  • Motorola Phones May Soon Have Self Repairing Displays

    Motorola Phones May Soon Have Self Repairing Displays

    The Motorola flagship, the Moto Z2 Force was launched on 10 August 2017 with a shatter-resistant coating on the display and a dual camera setup. Though the shatterproof tech can survive a few drops and bumps, but it isn’t strictly “shatterproof “. Therefore, Motorola has reportedly decided to take display protection a step further.

    A newly-filed patent shows that Motorola is planning to build a thermal self-repairing phone, covered with shape memory polymer materials or ‘Smart Glass’.The self repairing tech will detect cracks on its external smart glass and notify the user. The user will then mark the damage area using the fingertip, while heat from the phone will be applied to the smart glass in order to repair the damage.

    In the above image, Motorola described the process of the phone’s self-repair with thermal elements. The heat from the phone will trigger the smart glass’s shape memory properties, hence reversing the damage.

    The FIG. 12 shows a user identifying the damage by encircling the crack on the smart glass. The phone can then identify the segments which need to be reset, and where to apply heat.

    Though the self healing smart glass is a big step forward, Motorola described in the filed patent that the tech will “reverse at least some deformation”, and not all. As it would be difficult to reverse the damage on shattered screens. Safe to say, the thermal self repairing tech may not be able to fix the smart glass if it is completely broken or a a chunk of the screen is chipped out.

    Even though original patent papers for the thermal self healing technology have surfaced, it will be a while before we witness the tech in a phone. It also appears that this patent was filed way back in or before 2011 as it features dockable phones like the Motorola Atrix which were launched back then. This means that Motorola has wanted to solve this problem for a while. If this technology does appear from the Motorola stable, hopefully they will license it out to the other big manufacturers namely Apple and Samsung, who have had major issues with broken smartphone displays.

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