Samsung Electronics has approached Iconi with a strategic plan to leverage its highly sensitive skills to reuse ultrathin glass (UTG) for its upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 6 versatile phone. The completion of such a study in Galaxy Z Flip 3 in 2021 marks the successful implementation of Econi at LG company.
UTG is undoubtedly an important element of a foldable phone because a foldable phone should have thick and strong properties. Samsung sources UTG from two suppliers: Corning for the Z Flip and in collaboration with SCHOTT for the Z Fold. Corning’s UTG glass plate is used by Ikoni, and technical processes such as thinning, chemical treatment, and cutting are performed by this company to prepare it for use in the Galaxy Z6 Flip.
UTG materials for Samsung Display’s Galaxy Z Fold devices are supplied by an independent and separate supply chain. Samsung Display’s SCHOTT-sourced, thick UTG plates are first safely fed through the feeding system of Douensis machines for the kerf stack drawing process.
Iaconi’s skill in etching, a key process for thinning glass manufactured by Corning, opens up a new market for UTG post-processing. Moreover, even UTI, one of Samsung’s potential post-UKT technology suppliers, has no track record of strong dry-etching. Keeping offline marketing as their core business, they are now working on developing this technology for a large Chinese phone manufacturer, with plans to mass produce it in 2024.
Defining Iconi as a company that is successful only in UTG processing while facilitating the assembling of foldable phones is only a part. They are using their Through Glass Via (TGV) for packaging of semiconductors which is already in the works. The configuration that forms the basis of this technology, which is about creating nanoscale holes in glass substrates, is remarkable. The fact that Iaconi’s company intends to build a new factory in Vietnam shows that they would like to do business with other regions based on their expertise.
