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Your Phone Could Soon Be Thinner Than A Credit Card Thanks To World’s Thinnest Camera Lens

By Tara West
Published on: 06:32 PST, Mar 13, 2016

Scientists have created the world’s thinnest camera lens which can be used in smartphones to create even thinner designs. The camera lens is two-thousandth the thickness of a human hair and is made using laser beams to shave off thin layers of crystal. Not only is the lens super thin, but it is also completely flexible making it an ideal component for not only cell phones but many other tech projects.

The Daily Mail reports that the world’s thinnest camera lens clocks in at mind-blowing 6.3 nm thickness. For perspective, it would take two thousand of these lenses to create the thickness of a single human hair. It was revealed by the team from Nano-Electro-Mechanical System (NEMS) Laboratory in the ANU Research School of Engineering that the thinnest lens prior to the latest invention was 50 nm in thickness, making the newest lens almost eight times smaller than the previous record holder.

The Australian scientists credit molybdenum disulphide crystal for the remarkable new invention, noting that the crystal can not only be shaved using lasers to extremely thin layers, it is also completely flexible. The researchers also note that the latest lens and the use of molybdenum disulphide crystal is a game-changer in the camera world, making it possible for cameras to be tinier than ever imagined.

“Molybdenum disulphide is an amazing crystal. It survives at high temperatures, is a lubricant, a good semiconductor and can emit photons too. At the beginning we couldn’t imagine why molybdenum disulphide had such surprising properties. Manipulating the flow of light at an atomic scale could lead to unprecedented miniaturization in the making of cameras.”

Due to the flexibility, the crystal lens can also be used in a variety of technology projects and for other scientific uses. For example, the team described using the lenses to mimic insect eyes for study purposes.The flexible super-thin lens will also likely make its way to cell phone manufacturers who have been working hard to make their mobile devices as thin as possible. With the utilization of the new camera lens, it is believed that the cell phone could become thinner than a credit card while maintaining all current features. In fact, Apple has already been working diligently to make the newest versions of the iPhone thinner than past models.

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Inquisitr previously reported that Apple plans to remove the headphone jack from future iPhone models as well as the need of charging ports. By removing the headphone jack, the iPhone will be the thinnest phone yet and it will cut the thickness of the iPhone by one millimeter, or.04 inches. Instead of the standard headphone jack, users will have a Lightning port and wireless charging options.

“Apple is working with its longtime audio chip partner Cirrus Logic to adapt the audio chipset in the iPhone to work with the Lightning port, according to our source.”

With the other efforts in place, along with the super thin new camera lens, the smartphone could become exceedingly thin and making it possible for your credit card to take up more space than your mobile device.

What do you think about the idea of a cell phone thinner than a credit card? Would you want to use a phone that thin or are there other aspects of the cell phone that you would like to see adjusted that does not involve a thinner design? What do you think are the benefits of a thinner smartphone design? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

[Image via Shutterstock]

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