Diamond Scratch-Resistant Coating for Luxury Mobile Phones

Diamond thin films are an extraordinary material with the potential to have enormous global economic impact. ThinFilmsBlog will be reporting on state-of-the-art diamond film technology and applications. It is significant that although the Diamondshield coating is relatively soft (2-3 GPa versus up to 75 GPa for non-hydrogenated, tetrahedral amorphous carbon: ta-C) this film none-the-less provides valuable benefit in this application. It shows how much room for improvement there still is for diamond film technology.

North American manufacturer of luxury mobile phones, Mobiado, is using a scratch-resistant coating on the front face of its exclusive Luminoso 3G phone. The new DiamondShield coating gives polycarbonate and acrylic screens a previously unattainable scratch-resistance that is comparable to glass, while maintaining the weight savings, impact resistance, formability and other benefits of plastic.

DIAMONEX produces Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC)and related coatings by both Ion Beam and RF Plasma CVD deposition processes operating under vacuum at substrate temperatures typically <150° C.