My Name is Yan , I was a glass coating technician since 2011, meticulously applying oleophobic layers to smartphone screen protectors. Day after day, I witnessed the same frustrating reality: even the best glass, from top brands like Corning, would develop fine scratches within weeks. It was an unavoidable flaw.
Yet, I would look at my iPhone’s camera lens or a luxury watch face—crafted from sapphire crystal—and see they remained flawless for years. Sapphire was clearly the answer, but at $80 to $90 per piece, it was a luxury few could afford for a full screen protector.
A question began to haunt me:
What if we could give glass the surface of sapphire?
The idea was simple in theory but revolutionary in practice: Could we vaporize sapphire and bond it atom by atom onto durable glass, just like applying a coating? The challenge was monumental. Sapphire doesn’t melt until it reaches 2000°C (3632°F)—a temperature far beyond the capabilities of any standard coater I knew.