Apple, a company which prides itself on progressive social initiatives and green everything, drops a plum in the lap of a state which prides itself on anti- immigrant policies, anti-gay legislation, and neo know-nothing politics. Yeah, I know, tax benefits, yadda-yadda. Just gotta ask . . .
And what about "No Semi Deliveries"? Are they discriminating here?
[QUOTE]Use as substrate for semiconducting circuits[edit] [B][I]Thin sapphire wafers also are used as an insulating substrate in high-power, high-frequency CMOS integrated circuits. This type of IC is called a silicon on sapphire or "SOS" chip. These are especially useful for high-power radio-frequency (RF) [COLOR=blue]applications such as those found in cellular telephones[/COLOR], police car and fire truck radios, and satellite communication systems.[/I][/B] "SOS" allows for the monolithic integration of both digital and analog circuitry all on one IC chip. The porcelanium[citation needed] substrate is built on a sapphire base and then glazed with a layer of synthetic diamond[citation needed]. Porcelanium permits the creation of multilayered epitaxies for emerging applications like monolithic electronics systems built for applications like defense and space. [B][I][COLOR=blue]At least one company has announced a single block monolithic smartphone[citation needed] created by integrating the touchscreen, display, processor, memory, multi and RF chipset and battery onto the porcelanium substrate. This process eliminates the need for conventional electro mechanical assembly that is carried out for smartphones today.[/COLOR][/I][/B]
The reason for choosing wafers of artificial sapphire, rather than some other substance, for these substrates is that sapphire has a quite low conductivity for electricity, but a much-higher conductivity for heat. [I]Thus, sapphire provides good electrical insulation, while at the same time doing a good job at helping to conduct away the significant heat that is generated in all operating integrated circuits.[/I]
Once the single crystal sapphire boules are grown they are cored-sliced into cylindrical pieces. Wafers are then sliced from these cylindrical cores. These wafers of single-crystal sapphire material are also used in the semiconductor industry as a non-conducting substrate for the growth of devices based on gallium nitride (GaN). The use of the sapphire material significantly reduces the cost, because it has about one-seventh the cost of germanium. Gallium nitride on sapphire is commonly used in blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs).[48][/QUOTE]
I would like to see porcelanium be the new tech buzzword for 2014?
Here's another read -- difficult, but informative:
Silicon-On-Sapphire; Rising Value In Next-Generation Wireless Networks
Feb 21, 2013
Introductions of new wireless communication standards are forcing makers of RF Front End components to build products with higher linearity. Silicon-on-sapphire devices excel in this area and, thanks to our UltraCMOS process and accelerated roadmap, the performancegap is expected to continue to grow, versus known competitive technologies such as GaAs, says Rodd Novak from Peregrine Semiconductor Corporation.
Operators of wireless networks continually strive for higher efficiencies, faster data rates and lower latency. Their quest leads them to introduce new schemes for data transmission. One of the most recent is the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile communications standard, which is gaining widespread adoption around the world. A significant proportion of US operators have rapidly deployed the LTE standard, and those in Europe, China, and the rest of the world are not far behind.
The introduction of a 4G LTE network brings with it a number of technical challenges that impact many of the RF Front End (RFFE) components in User Equipment (UE), such as Power Amplifiers (PAs), filters, antennas, and switches. Adjustments and improvements in these components are needed in order to deliver smaller, more integrated RFFEs that have the high isolation and high linearity needed to keep pace with advances in UE and the supporting infrastructure.
It is possible to address all of these requirements with legacy compound semiconductor technologies. However, there is an alternative. The Silicon-on-Sapphire (SOS) process—an advanced form of Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology—enables RFFE components with the scalable integration, consistent performance, and benefits of the most widely used semiconductor technology—CMOS. Additionally, the SOS process allows RF performance equal to or better than GaAs.
From my reading, I've also learned that sapphire would also be useful in camera lenses, because is conducts all the UV-visible light spectrum and can be used to focus ...
This could mean improved iPhone camera optics (zoom, autofocus, etc.)
Here's one reference to sapphire being used in camera lenses and focusing:
[QUOTE]Sapphire Lenses
Series MPCX and MPCV optical grade sapphire lenses are manufactured from optical grade grown sapphire. Monocrystalline sapphire is slightly birefringent. The lenses are available in positive and negative configurations. Typical applications include:
IR laser Beamsteering optics Imaging optics Chemical & erosion resistant front surface optics. Focusing Optics This series of sapphire lenses is currently in limited production. Please consult the factory for availability. Other diameters and focal lengths may be special ordered. We can also supply parts with anti-reflection and other thin film coatings. [/QUOTE]
Several other uses for sapphire are in lasers and logic chips. GT is suspected of big advances in thinner layers of sapphire (it has been used as non-conductive oxide layer in logic chips, laid on silicon). Sapphire is also capable of being doped as in ruby lasers where ruby is the dopant-- but also with other dopants to create semiconductor chips. Perhaps Apple's considerable acquisition of chip development talent over the years along with significant yields and scale for GT and other aspects in sapphire would suggest a couple of options.
-
Sapphire allows for faster operations in use with silicon at lower power. This is critical in miniaturization with increase in speed and lower power requirements. And then there's the elephant in the room that has been assumed to further in the future -- blindingly fast optical circuits increasingly competitive in low power. This is getting interesting. This is admittedly unknowledgeable speculation on my part, but we know Apple has a wealth in logic design, has acquired more talent through acquisitions and partnerships -- where is this leading? Sapphire shows promise in solar as well. The adjacent property to the GT plant is expected to be used by the Apple GT partnership and may be used for solar power generation and/or production of solar devices.
Solar forays always involve battery advances, and the talks with Tesla may be a budding partnership in battery advances in design, yield and efficiency. Add to all this the research with carbon nanotubes in chip design (already associated with sapphire), and we may being seeing a feasible roadplan for 5 to 10 years for great advances by Apple and partners in compute power and speed at low power requirements on orders of magnitude allowing for very small embedded devices in wearables and household and commercial devices. The new net if you will.
You should be writing science fiction novels with your active imagination. You make this simple production plant seem pretty exciting with all those far-flung possibilities. Too bad Apple is only going to use the sapphire as a protective face for iWatch. Wall Street simply sees this plant as a waste of good money that could be spent on more buybacks. Wall Street has no imagination at all.
I remember watching a piece on something like 60 minutes about a company that can manufacture ruby. They put a dye in the gems that is visible with ultraviolet light or something like that so people can spot theirs as not being natural. They had people of course request batches without the dye. Who needs ethics when you can manufacture Ruby?
To make rubies it takes a tiny about of chromium to give the pure aluminum a red tint. A different impurity to make green emeralds, and so forth. It's hard to believe that all these gems, including sapphire are 99.9999% chromium in a crystal form.
Comments
Apple, a company which prides itself on progressive social initiatives and green everything, drops a plum in the lap of a state which prides itself on anti- immigrant policies, anti-gay legislation, and neo know-nothing politics. Yeah, I know, tax benefits, yadda-yadda. Just gotta ask . . .
And what about "No Semi Deliveries"? Are they discriminating here?
[QUOTE]Use as substrate for semiconducting circuits[edit]
[B][I]Thin sapphire wafers also are used as an insulating substrate in high-power, high-frequency CMOS integrated circuits. This type of IC is called a silicon on sapphire or "SOS" chip. These are especially useful for high-power radio-frequency (RF) [COLOR=blue]applications such as those found in cellular telephones[/COLOR], police car and fire truck radios, and satellite communication systems.[/I][/B] "SOS" allows for the monolithic integration of both digital and analog circuitry all on one IC chip. The porcelanium[citation needed] substrate is built on a sapphire base and then glazed with a layer of synthetic diamond[citation needed]. Porcelanium permits the creation of multilayered epitaxies for emerging applications like monolithic electronics systems built for applications like defense and space. [B][I][COLOR=blue]At least one company has announced a single block monolithic smartphone[citation needed] created by integrating the touchscreen, display, processor, memory, multi and RF chipset and battery onto the porcelanium substrate. This process eliminates the need for conventional electro mechanical assembly that is carried out for smartphones today.[/COLOR][/I][/B]
The reason for choosing wafers of artificial sapphire, rather than some other substance, for these substrates is that sapphire has a quite low conductivity for electricity, but a much-higher conductivity for heat. [I]Thus, sapphire provides good electrical insulation, while at the same time doing a good job at helping to conduct away the significant heat that is generated in all operating integrated circuits.[/I]
Once the single crystal sapphire boules are grown they are cored-sliced into cylindrical pieces. Wafers are then sliced from these cylindrical cores. These wafers of single-crystal sapphire material are also used in the semiconductor industry as a non-conducting substrate for the growth of devices based on gallium nitride (GaN). The use of the sapphire material significantly reduces the cost, because it has about one-seventh the cost of germanium. Gallium nitride on sapphire is commonly used in blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs).[48][/QUOTE]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire#Star_sapphire
I would like to see porcelanium be the new tech buzzword for 2014?
Here's another read -- difficult, but informative:
http://www.compoundsemiconductor.net/csc/features-details.php?cat=news&id=19736047
From my reading, I've also learned that sapphire would also be useful in camera lenses, because is conducts all the UV-visible light spectrum and can be used to focus ...
This could mean improved iPhone camera optics (zoom, autofocus, etc.)
[QUOTE]Sapphire Lenses
Series MPCX and MPCV optical grade sapphire lenses are manufactured from optical grade grown sapphire. Monocrystalline sapphire is slightly birefringent. The lenses are available in positive and negative configurations. Typical applications include:
IR laser Beamsteering optics
Imaging optics
Chemical & erosion resistant front surface optics.
Focusing Optics
This series of sapphire lenses is currently in limited production. Please consult the factory for availability. Other diameters and focal lengths may be special ordered. We can also supply parts with anti-reflection and other thin film coatings. [/QUOTE]
http://www.melleroptics.com/shopping/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=19
Several other uses for sapphire are in lasers and logic chips. GT is suspected of big advances in thinner layers of sapphire (it has been used as non-conductive oxide layer in logic chips, laid on silicon). Sapphire is also capable of being doped as in ruby lasers where ruby is the dopant-- but also with other dopants to create semiconductor chips. Perhaps Apple's considerable acquisition of chip development talent over the years along with significant yields and scale for GT and other aspects in sapphire would suggest a couple of options.
-
Sapphire allows for faster operations in use with silicon at lower power. This is critical in miniaturization with increase in speed and lower power requirements. And then there's the elephant in the room that has been assumed to further in the future -- blindingly fast optical circuits increasingly competitive in low power. This is getting interesting. This is admittedly unknowledgeable speculation on my part, but we know Apple has a wealth in logic design, has acquired more talent through acquisitions and partnerships -- where is this leading? Sapphire shows promise in solar as well. The adjacent property to the GT plant is expected to be used by the Apple GT partnership and may be used for solar power generation and/or production of solar devices.
Solar forays always involve battery advances, and the talks with Tesla may be a budding partnership in battery advances in design, yield and efficiency. Add to all this the research with carbon nanotubes in chip design (already associated with sapphire), and we may being seeing a feasible roadplan for 5 to 10 years for great advances by Apple and partners in compute power and speed at low power requirements on orders of magnitude allowing for very small embedded devices in wearables and household and commercial devices. The new net if you will.
You should be writing science fiction novels with your active imagination. You make this simple production plant seem pretty exciting with all those far-flung possibilities. Too bad Apple is only going to use the sapphire as a protective face for iWatch. Wall Street simply sees this plant as a waste of good money that could be spent on more buybacks. Wall Street has no imagination at all.
How exactly do you know there is an iWatch and this is the only thing Apple will ever use sapphire for?
To make rubies it takes a tiny about of chromium to give the pure aluminum a red tint. A different impurity to make green emeralds, and so forth. It's hard to believe that all these gems, including sapphire are 99.9999% chromium in a crystal form.
Sapphire glass window panes for Apple Campus 2!
No sapphire...... translucent liquid metal! I really must be tired, because right now I think that line is funny.