[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]GT Advanced Technologies (Nasdaq:GTAT) is participating in the 2013 Society for Information Display‘s Display Week event May 20-24 in Vancouver, BC. The company will be showcasing sapphire cover screens for smartphones and other mobile devices including touch panel demonstrations with sapphire screens developed by Atmel and Ocular that highlight sapphire touch sensitivity when integrated into a touch module. In addition, the company will be delivering presentations during Monday’s Business and Touch Gesture Motion conferences. The presentations will highlight results of recent sapphire material testing and provide an update on the progress being made in the development of an optimized fabrication value chain for delivering low-cost and high volume sapphire screen material.

GT is developing and investing in a number of innovative technologies that, when commercialized, will help to lower the cost of sapphire cover screens to levels that are competitive with reinforced glass material. GT continues to advance its ASF® sapphire growth furnace for the production of high volume, high quality sapphire material. In addition, the company's recently announced acquisition of Thermal Technology broadens its sapphire equipment offerings with a sapphire annealing furnace that the company believes will be important in the manufacturing of sapphire cover screens. GT is also developing its Hyperion implant technology, which it expects could significantly lower the cost of sapphire cover screens by delivering thin, exfoliated sapphire substrates in high volumes.

GT is completing a series of third-party tests on sapphire cover screens to demonstrate how sapphire material compares with other glass cover solutions. Preliminary results of these tests will be presented in the Touch Gesture Motion Conference Monday, May 20. The presentation will be available on GT's web site at [http://investor.gtat.com/events.cfm].