A Future Made of Glass -Symposium on the Future of Materials Science and Engineering: An Industry Perspective
Peter L. BockoCTO - Corning Glass Technologies
14 May 2013
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 2
Silicate glass is one of the earliest topics of materials science
• Glass articles have been manufactured for ~5000 years.
– The history of glass making can be traced back to 3000 BCE in Mesopotamia
– The earliest known man made glass are date back to around 3500BC, with finds in Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia.
– Early artifacts show substantial glass chemistry know-how & sophistication
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 4
…but glass is in fact the jeweled bearing in one of the most compelling trends in human history: pervasive interconnectivity
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 5
Our products today in the value chain for Ubiquitous Connectivity & Display
Information Delivery
Information Display
EAGLE XG® & Lotus™ Substrate Glass for High Performance LCD & OLED
Corning Optical Fiber, Cable, Components & Wireless Solutions
User Interface: Touch Screen Cover
Corning® Gorilla® Cover Glass
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 6
Just how large is the opportunity for engineered glass? LCD glass consumption in 2012 was 3.6 109 ft²
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
1987 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Mill
ion
Squa
re F
eet
Seattle Boston
3.6 Billion square feet of glass is enough for a ribbon of glass 4-lanes wide (including generous median & shoulders) along the entire route of I-90
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 7
2011Setting the industry standard
2012Same durability, 20% thinner
2013Improved scratch resistance
Gorilla Glass: An example of the glass industry forcing the pace of innovation via optimization & specialization
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 8
…which requires moving beyond the traditional role of a cover glass
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 9
The Big Picture: What does glass actually do? Functional History of Glass on One Slide
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 10
Materials & Applications Technology Trends in Glass• Glass will be increasingly an environmental presence driven by pervasive
connectivity– Unbroken glass path from content to consumer (required by gigabit/sec
consumption)– Ubiquitous display: blurred device boundaries (client/host) and even less
distinction between real and virtual worlds– Hidden glass that enables device performance (3DIC)
• Glass functional range will expand beyond the traditional roles of encapsulant, host and (optical) functionality.
• Traditional roles of glass will be increasingly customized by application– Commodity Specialization
• The palette of the glass chemist will expand into non-traditional oxides and mixed anion systems.
• Process innovation will be directed towards Cost/Green– Market forces have synergy with environmental responsibility
• Flexible glass will be the nucleation point for a variety of new applications including low cost electronics manufacture
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 11
Academic research in glass: not a pretty story*• There is a dearth of young professors with an interest in glass. The great
thought leaders of the 60’s & 70’s are retiring and few are stepping up to carry the torch.
• At present, only one University in the US has a degree in glass science (Alfred University…60 miles from Corning)
• Programs traditionally focused on glass and ceramics have broadening into more general materials science programs at the expense of glass
• There is a decline in proposals submitted to NSF for research on glass. Professors claim glass science proposals risky propositions for funding.
• There is a growing community of physicists interested in glass science but there is very little communication between the (fading) “traditional glass science” and (growing) “glass physics” communities.
* - profound thanks to Dr. John Mauro – glass theorist & visionary extraordinaire who so well articulated this crisis.
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 12
This trend has a direct impact upon on Corning’s competitiveness” we cannot do this by ourselves• This is a serious problem for Corning in finding highly qualified
young scientists, engineers, and technicians who are passionate about glass.
• The clock speed of the industries in which we compete do not allow lengthy training & development of Chemistry, Physics & Materials Science talent to have deep thoughts about glass.
• Corning recognizes and is acting upon the fact that we should do more…
– Need to sustain internship programs in good times and bad– Need to engage academia and identify “Grand Challenges” in glass
science.– We need to partner with a wonderful affiliated resource…Corning
Museum of Glass.– Encourage & reward our young scientists for doing & presenting
fundamental science and engaging academia.
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 13
The opportunity
• We cannot do it all and we are missing the wealth of engaged and collaborative university programs with a focus on glass.
• Industrial labs typically drive to empirical understanding…but it is inefficient in this world’s pace of innovation.
– Need to drive to fundamentals. – Many glass properties lack a foundation in first principles.
• Universities can take bigger risks and have a longer attention span.
• However, universities are generally not optimal places to optimize new glass phenomena for the creation of new application space
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 14
There is a target-rich environment for academic research
Glass PropertyFundamentals
GlassStructure
Novel Chemistries, Structures &
Processes of Glass
New Functional Roles for Glass
Glass Strength & Failure at the bonding level
Nanoscale understanding of failure initiation & propagation
First principles understanding of relaxation
..& thermal conductivity
…& electrical conduction & dielectric properties
…& chemical durability
Application of Statistical Mechanical techniques to glass properties & structure
Structural roles of cationsand anions in complex glass compositions
First principles of bonding preferences in glass
Universal glass structural model that incorporates chemistry & thermal history
Multi-scale & temporal modeling: quantum, atomistic, meso- & macro-scale
Thermodynamics of crystallization and liquidusbehavior in complex glasses
Mixed anion glasses:oxychalcongenide , oxyhalide, oxynitride
Metallic glasses & the brittle-to-ductile transition
Structured glass: nanophases, laminates, glass ceramics, induced anisotropy
Environmentally friendly glass melting & fining
Glass formation at high pressure & temperature: polyamorphism
Sol-gel & nano-particleslip casting
Glass as a medium for promoting cell growth: compositions & structural effects.
Glass as a biological sensor
Novel ion conductors: Li, Na, Ag, O, F, Cl…
Glass as an acoustic medium
Advanced optical phenomena in glass: poling, microchanneling
Added surface functionality mechanical & optical coatings, sensing, catalysis, contamination resistance
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 15St. Chapelle Stained Glass Windows (Paris)
There is still a lot to learn about glass…even in those areas that glass scientists thought were “settled”.
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 16
Reproduced with Permission from: Am. J. Phys. 66 [5] 392 (1998)
Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann (VFT) Equation:
Conclusion: Glass would flow on a time scale of 1033 years!
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 17
Room Temperature Relaxation of Commercial Alkali Aluminosilicate Glass*
• First-ever direct measurement of dimensional changes for a commercial alkali aluminosilicate glass at room temperature: linear strain of ~10 ppm over the course of 1.5 year
• The same mechanism underlying the “thermometer effect”: observation of room temperature relaxation of glass causing a shift in the zero of aging glass thermometers in the 1890s.
• Compositionally dependent: other members of the same composition family and commercial non-alkali glass do not show this behavior
• Remarkably, this relaxation follows a stretched exponential decay with a dimensionless stretching exponent of
= 3/7, corresponding to the value predicted by the Phillips diffusion-trap model for relaxation dominated by long-range Coulomb forces.
* - Unpublished results…more thanks to Dr. John Mauro
Glass Technologies © 2013 Corning Incorporated 18
Glass: So familiar, yet it remains a materials system with unlimited potential and profound technological complexity
• Corning Research Division is taking initiative to re-engage the academic community and US government funding agencies
– Stimulate renewal in glass academic research– Enhance alignment, communication synergy among existing glass
researchers in disparate fields.• One approach under development is a Corning sponsored event• We are now working on the articulation of “grand challenges” in glass:
fundamental glass problems that Corning feels are tractable and significant
• I will be pleased to pass on contacts for attendees of this who are interested in participating.