Samsung inks deal with ultra-thin glass (UTG) maker for future foldables

Samsung has only reported selling over half a million units of the Galaxy Fold. That is understandable, as the whole idea of the Foldable phone is still in the infancy. That notwithstanding, the Korean firm aims to ramp up shipments in the coming year, as it plans to ship over six million foldable devices next year.

Six million units is a whole lot especially as it relates to the all-new Foldable smartphone, but Samsung seems well prepared to ramp up production so as to meet up with the target. To meet the new production targets, the Display arm of the Korean conglomerate has inked a deal with Dowoo Insis for Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG), which will be used in future foldable phones. The deal is an exclusive one, and that means only Samsung will clear up all units of Ultra Thing Glass (UTG) from the Korean firm.

The deal is, reportedly, a mid- to long-term one. And as part of its commitment, Samsung is reported to have funded the display maker with KRW 12 billion investment. This will aid the company jack up its monthly production capacity which currently stands at 500,000 units per month. To this end, the glassmaker will be beefing up its existing Korean facilities, while new ones will be set up in Vietnam.

Dowoo, and Chinese firms

Aside from Samsung, a number of Chinese firms are also reportedly tapping reaching out to Dowoo for the supply of foldable displays, perhaps, not only for use in smartphones but also for use in laptop computers.

Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG)

With this deal, Samsung will be dropping the transparent plastic polyimide (PI) protective layer on the current Fold's display with scratch-resistant ultra-thin glass (UTG) on the second-generation folding phone. The Ultra-thin Glass (UTG) is as thin as 30µm (that’s less than a human hair), and more resilient than the plastic Ployimide in terms of scratch resistance.