At the moment, the thickness of the iPhone 4S is 9.3 mm. Apple, in order to gain a competitive advantage with other smartphone manufacturers, will seek to further reduce the thickness of its new models. For this, thinner batteries and new body materials are used. But the main focus is on the application of a new touchscreen technology called In-Cell.
In-Cell is a fundamentally new touch screen technology. Its use allows you to reduce the thickness of the gadget by 0.44 mm. Currently, touchscreens are manufactured using the widespread On-Cell technology, in which the touch sensors are located above the color filters in a separate layer, or Glass-On-Glass technology, in which the touch sensors are located directly on the display surface.
In the new In-Cell technology, sensors will be embedded directly into the color rendering filters, positioned directly below the outermost layer of glass on the screen. This eliminates the need for a middle layer of glass. The combination of LCD and touch layer is based on multiplex electrodes commonly used for touch input relays. In In-Cell technology, these same electrodes are used to process touch signals and screen pixels. This allows not only to reduce the size of the touch screen, but also its weight, as well as to speed up the reaction of the sensors themselves to touch.
Sharp and Toshiba corporations have been selected as manufacturers of new types of screens as they have the technological capabilities for their release. It was the Japanese who were the first to introduce on the market sensor elements with a thin layer of a film transistor inside, and not on the surface of the glass substrate of an LCD screen. In addition, the result of this division of labor should be a significant acceleration in the pace of production at Apple. However, Taiwanese companies are striving to keep up with the Japanese, which in the near future plan to present their own developments based on In-Cell technology.
In case of successful implementation of In-Cell technology, it will be extended to smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks around the world. However, analysts from rival companies doubt that In-Cell technology will reach consumers in the near future. They draw their conclusions based on the unavailability of the new technology for serial production.
