Apple's Solar Powered iPhone 6 And iPod Touch Under A Sapphire Hood

All eyes seem to be focused on Apple (AAPL) and its $578m contract for sapphire materials with GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT). The two companies signed an agreement nearly three months ago, but anticipation and speculation are rising daily to figure out exactly what Apple has up its sleeves this time around.


Recent Events

A report surfaced on Friday that Apple's longtime manufacturing partner Foxconn successfully assembled over 100 next generation iPhones equipped with sapphire covered displays. This is a significant development and a confirmation that sapphire screens will be coming to the iPhone 6.
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I'm sure you want to know why I spent so much time on the importance of sapphire cover screens. The reason why sapphire screens are so important to Apple and their innovation is because they need sapphire to protect all of their "cool stuff" under the hood of their devices. They ditched glass in lieu of sapphire camera lenses because they didn't want your pictures to show up with scratches. They acquired Authentec for $356m in 2012, but needed to replace the home button with a sapphire home button, in order to take advantage of the technology. A sapphire screen will also allow Apple to take full advantage of their Authentec acquisition and allow them to add Touch ID technology underneath their entire screen instead of just the home button.


The Solar Powered iPhone 6 and Next Generation iPod Touch

The integrated touch sensor and solar assembly patent was a great first step, but it left a lot of loose ends to address, before it could be deployed in Apple's product portfolio. This patent requires a "boost converter" to transmit energy between the solar cells and the device's battery. This patent does not allow the solar cell to convert its energy directly into the device's battery, without introducing an electric current converter to send the energy, at the correct voltage to the device's battery. The key takeaway is this method is inefficient and will require more physical space under the hood than Apple can afford to give up.


September 2013 Apple Posts Job for Thin Films Engineer

September 13, 2013 9 to 5 Mac captured the screenshot of a very "solar centric" position posted on Apple's website. The Thin Films Engineer position required experience with thin-films technology and this individual would assist in the development and refinement of thin films technology applicable to electronic systems. The individual would also join Apple's mobile devices division. My takeaway, this is a new job to create and perfect thin-film (solar cell) charging for Apple's mobile devices.


October 2013 Apple Files Patent for Solar Touch Screen Integrated within the Device

October 31, 2013 Apple was granted a new solar touch screen patent, that will allow Apple to power a device, without the need of a "boost converter," which will lead to fewer issues squeezing components underneath the hood of Apple's devices. This is a significant improvement from the February 2013 patent.

The technical specifications indicate that Apple managed to refine the solar charging process, that will enable solar energy, to be transmitted directly into the power supply. I also found it fascinating that Apple listed out the products that are suitable for this technology, which include the following; MacBook, iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. I'm sure you are wondering when we will see the technology being used? Well guess what: every road leads to Mesa, AZ!


Mesa, AZ Sapphire Facility

November 5th, 2013 a strategic partnership was announced with GT Advanced Technologies to open up a Sapphire Materials facility in Mesa, AZ. One job posting that caught my eye was Apple's Manufacturing Design Engineer for work on the (iPhone/iPod). I've called out some specific focus areas of the job that tell me exactly what Apple has up their sleeve.

One focus area was on Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD). PVD is a method to deposit thin films by the condensation of a vaporized form of material onto surfaces. The most common PVD processes include arc evaporation, sputtering, ion plating, and enhanced sputtering, all of which are related to electronic beams (expensive lasers).

The second focus area that stood out to me was glass scribing. Why would Apple be hiring engineers to develop new processes in PVD and glass scribing at a sapphire plant? So I did what any Sherlock Holmes would do and I researched what scribing of glass could possibly mean. Through my research I located a 2011 article from Purdue University and it turns out scribing is a process used to place ultra-thin film solar cells onto glass. I think I found something, my dear Watson! Ultra thin film solar cells are typically "scribed" onto glass via expensive lasers. Furthermore, Apple's Thin Film Engineer they recruited in September 2013 was required to have solar experience and was brought on to develop and refine thin film technology for Apple's mobile division. The Manufacturing Design Engineer is being recruited to take the established thin film technology and scribe the solar cells onto glass with expensive lasers.


Solar Cell Laser Show

Apple already told investors they would be spending a record $10.5 billion in capital expenditures in the Fiscal Year ending 2014 including "cutting edge lasers." Everyone including myself wants to know what is going to fill 1.3 million square feet of space inside the Mesa, AZ plant besides GT's furnaces growing sapphire. I believe the answer is a fleet of cutting edge lasers at the cost of a few hundred million dollars. If you think this is too far-fetched to be true, please let me take you back in time via my DeLorean. This isn't the first time Apple will be going laser shopping (insert your own Austin Powers reference now). In 2011, Apple bought hundreds of lasers at a mere $250,000 each while trying to design the MacBook.


$68m Solar Cell Coating Equipment Order

Let's turn our attention to a company called Manz AG out of Germany, who announced a $50m EUR ($68m USD) order in its display division for solar cell coating equipment. The $68m order was announced on January 15, 2013, just four days after Apple posted the Mechanical Design Engineer position that will presumably operate this equipment. The innovative coating technology was developed in close cooperation with a "leading smartphones manufacturer." The last time I checked the smartphone sales scoreboard, there were only two names on that list; Apple and Samsung. The purchased technology includes an "innovative vacuum coating systems" as well as "laser process technology." One more flash back, vacuum coating and scribing (via a laser) were listed in the Mechanical Design Engineer job description. The Manz AG technical description of the equipment purchased fit Apple's Mechanical Design Engineer job description like a "T."

The details gave me tremendous clues as to who placed this first big order of solar cell equipment. I don't know of any leading smartphone manufacturers besides Apple and Samsung. The delivery of this equipment will be completed by the end of Q2 2014 which is consistent with Apple's expected ramp-up schedule. Manz AG notes that there is potential of high future revenue, which is an indication that additional orders of "significant" magnitude will be placed in the near future. Apple wants to deploy solar charging across all their electronic devices, as evidenced by the October solar patent list that included the MacBook, iPad, iPod touch and iPhone.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1968...ce=google_news

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Long Read, but interesting investigative journalism.

Would you be here for this? If this is true, could this make any of you Android users consider switching over to the iPhone 6 ?