technical ceramic solutions

Aluminium Oxynitride(ALON) will be used in the Microsoft new smart watch

Rumour: Microsoft is actually working on a new wrist device. Several weeks back Microsoft has placed orders for 1.5″ screens as The Verge reported but now trusted sources told AmongTech that the smartwatch is already being used as prototype, that the watch’s wrist bands will be available in a variety of colors Blue, Red, Yellow, Black, White and Gray, that it will have removable wrist bands and the outside housing will be made Aluminium Oxynitride, a aluminium that is a 80% transparent material but still 4 times harder than glass. The smart watch has since short gotten its own department and isn’t part of the Xbox team any more.

Our source also confirms that the smartwatch will include a adapted version of Windows 8 and is mostly based on Cloud storage as far as storage goes, however it won’t have to be connected to a smartphone like Google Glass will be, it will have its own 4G LTE and 6GB of internal storage (mostly for the OS). All though it doesn’t have to be contented to a smartphone, it will be able to able to interact with it and show stuff like push notifications or will allow you to change a song.

Aluminium Oxynitride :
Aluminium oxynitride or AlON is a transparent polycrystalline ceramic with cubic spinel crystal structure composed of aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen. It is currently marketed under the name ALON by Surmet Corporation.[3] ALON is optically transparent (≥80%) in the near-ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is 4 times harder than fused silica glass, 85% as hard as sapphire and nearly 15% harder than magnesium aluminate spinel. The material is stable up to 1,200 °C (2,190 °F).[1] It can be fabricated to transparent windows, plates, domes, rods, tubes and other forms using conventional ceramic powder processing techniques. Because of its relatively low weight, optical and mechanical properties, and its resistance to damage due to oxidation or radiation, it shows promise for use as infrared, high-temperature and ballistic- and blast-resistant windows. Manufacturing methods continue to be refined. The cost is similar to synthetic sapphire. Source from Wikipedia

The product is currently still in prototype but we expect to see more about it being revealed in late 2014.
– See more at: http://www.amongtech.com/microsoft-new-smart-watch-to-come-in-a-variety-of-colours/#sthash.LZY0eUl4.dpuf