A Samsung patent obtained in February 2017 has just been published and revealed the company’s intention to develop a self-repairing oleophobic coating to be applied to the glass that covers the display of the manufacturer’s mobile devices.
The patent application was published by the World Intellectual Property Organization, where the coating is called a “film” or “laminate” containing compounds such as polyhedral silseschioxane and polyrotaxane.
It is important to clarify that oil-repellent coatings for glass covers are not new and are currently used to keep fingerprints away from the glass pane, especially in authentication systems. However, this Samsung patent mentions a “self-healing” coating.
The truth is that a self-repairing oleophobic layer does not miraculously solve the fact that a glass is broken by a strong impact. The main purpose of this coating is to keep fingerprints off the screen to better protect the device.
Moreover, this technology would provide better protection against everyday scratches and abrasions, but it will do nothing to remove cracks. With Samsung’s intention to create folding wall, metal smartphones, it makes perfect sense for the South Korean company to apply a much more robust oleophobic coating to its smartphones.
In addition, this technology would be very useful for customers in the long term, especially as people are keeping their flagship smartphones much longer due to the rising prices of high-end devices.
However, this is only a patent, so we are not sure whether the company has started using this new coating for its intelligent devices. Samsung recently unveiled its “unbreakable” screen, which offered much more durability than the latest version of Corning’s Gorilla Glass 6.