THE THINNER THE BETTER FOR GLASS USED IN ELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS.

(Full text of a statement, contact details below)

MAINZ, May 28 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ -- Touch panels, image sensor packaging, IR-cut filters -- extremely thin flat glass is particularly suitable for many demanding electronic applications, whether in the expanding markets for mobile equipment, in optoelectronics or the automotive industry. The parallel trend towards miniaturization demands increasingly thin high-quality glass. The international SCHOTT technology group will be presenting products and solutions that meet these high requirements at the Optocom Taiwan trade fair, being held in Taipei, from June 9 - 12, 2004.

The market for thin-glass touch panels in cell phones is particularly promising in China. Due to the large number of Chinese characters, it takes a lot of effort to write a text message using conventional keypads with just 12 keys. Touch panels are better suited since the messages can be entered using a pen backed by character recognition software.

SCHOTT borosilicate thin glass, such as D 263 T or AF 45 (alkali-free), is ideal for such applications. D 263 T can be manufactured in thicknesses of 0.03 to 1.1 mm and AF 45 in thicknesses of 0.05 to 0.5 mm. Both types are produced using the down-draw process and feature a high luminous transmittance, as well as excellent chemical, thermal, and surface properties. Thanks to their flatness, both glass types can easily be further processed or cut to size using laser or diamond tools.

Robust touch panels using D 263 T are already on the market in car navigation systems. As opposed to film type touch panels, these products meet the high demands of the automotive industry with regard to both temperature and humidity resistance a well as life expectancy. D 263 T is also proven as a cover glass for opto-couplers in laser diodes, as found in CD players, and for temperature and humidity sensors in air conditioning.

Both glass types play a major role in the expanding market for camera phones: D 263 T and AF 45 are used for packaging CCD (charge coupled device) and CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensors, while AF 45 is used in the WLCSP (wafer ...