Shaping the networked future with glass

Today, more and more information is being collected in the smallest space: more people, more communication, more data. Traditional ideas and approaches no longer offer solutions to these challenges. We need to rethink so many things, take unusual routes and use new materials. In data transmission, for example, where special glass already offers incredible possibilities for processing large volumes of data in the smallest of spaces. This is just one of the many examples of how we can shape the future with glass.

Challenge

Special glass for Big Data

20.8 billion networked devices will be in use worldwide by 2020. Mobile data volumes will continue to increase and are already doubling every two years. The demands placed on data transmission are constantly increasing: everything must be able to be sent and received anywhere and at any time. Conventional chip architectures are reaching their technological limits and the materials and components used to date also reach their physical limits. Special glass, on the other hand, is excellently suited to actively shape the networked future.

Many people can receive and transmit large amounts of data in parallel, in soccer stadiums, for example, in the smallest of spaces at 50 gigabits per second.

But other challenges of digitalization can also be met by using special glass:

Cloud Gaming

Autonomous Driving

Automated production lines/AI

8K-Streaming

Innovation

Special glass...

…makes the new 5G mobile communications standard usable

Glass makes you mobile because special glass-ceramic glasses have the demanding electrical properties and thermal expansion required for the new 5G high-speed technology. As early as 2017, the world’s largest antenna manufacturer Kathrein presented the prototype of an antenna array together with SCHOTT. In addition, these special glasses can already be found today in electrical antennas that are used for communication from vehicle to vehicle or in GNSS antennas in aircraft for high-precision navigation during take-off and landing. With these empirical values and developments, SCHOTT is well positioned for the future with 5G and has the solution for the new technology and increasingly larger mobile data volumes.

…makes the new 5G mobile communications standard usable

High material homogeneity and manufacturing accuracy of special glass and glass-ceramics

Optimal for combining as many circuit elements as possible in the smallest possible space

Enables the targeted transfer of large amounts of data to the position of the smartphone

…makes new transmission speeds possible.

SCHOTT has developed the 50G transistor outline technology for the transmission of ever larger amounts of data. It enables unprecedented bandwidths and transmission speeds of up to 50 gigabits per second in communication networks. To be the first manufacturer to achieve this standard, SCHOTT has set its sights on three points: How can the printed circuit board connection be improved so that it has lower losses, how can tolerances such as the glass fill level be reduced, and how can the chip connection be optimized so that performance also improves here? The transistor outline developed on this basis now enables transmission speeds of 50 gigabits per second, and this is by no means the end of the story.

…makes new transmission speeds possible.

Video Streaming Online Navigation Music Streaming Online Shopping

Video calls Youtube Facebook Twitter

HD Video Streaming Online Gaming Smart Home

4K Streaming Internet of Things (IoT) Internet Sharing

Cloud Gaming Artificial Intelligence (AI) 8K Streaming Highspeed Uploads

Autonomous Driving AR Glasses Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication

5G antennas Telemedicine Fiber Optic Internet Extreme VR Deep Space Communication

Ultra Highspeed Internet without delay Laser data transmission Automated production lines Complex networks

Real-time communication Everything in the cloud Industrial Internet of Things Everything connected Next generation of Internet

glass wafer, chip, data transmission, special glass, SCHOTT, digitialization

…processes large amounts of data.

At the Georgia Tech Packing Research Center in Atlanta, a team from industry and research is working with specialty glass manufacturer SCHOTT on a mission to bring together the previously separate semiconductor and printed circuit board industries using an electrical interface called an interposer.
The result: short cable routes, optimized data transfer and at the same time energy savings per area. Silicon or glass can be used as materials, however silicon is more expensive, and glass offers a better specification profile, especially in the high-frequency range.

Glass has an excellent surface and thus guarantees fewer losses and higher energy efficiency than other materials, even at high data frequencies. In addition, glass can be produced in large formats cost-effectively. Potential applications for SCHOTT’s glass interposers include high-performance applications such as high-performance computers.

…processes large amounts of data.

People

„I have gotten to know glass as a material with extremely versatile applications that plays an important role in many innovations – from high-performance computer chips to super-fast data transmission and foldable terminal devices. That sounds to me like a lot of potential to help shape a networked future.” Diana Wolf-Dolgner, Strategic-Foresight-Expert

„Whether wireless or wired, glass plays a decisive role when it comes to satisfying mankind’s growing hunger for data. We are looking forward to new fields of application in which glass can play out its advantages.” Robert Hettler, R&D Manager, SCHOTT Electronic Packaging

Digitalization, smartphone, virtual reality, data transmission, 5G, special glass, SCHOTT

Special glass opens up new worlds

Special glass is already an important material today for data transmission and handling the ever-increasing volumes of data. But in the future, glass will not only play a decisive role in the field of electronics. Glass not only supports digitalization; it is also becoming increasingly digital itself. Researchers are already working on integrating the smallest sensors and electronics into thin glass.

Anyone who thinks ahead knows that this will be an important step in the diagnostics of this century: glasses that can be applied thinly and flexibly to the skin, diagnose diseases or even heal wounds. Glass will open up new worlds in the future.