Sapphire substrates have been around for a very long time. First chemically synthesized by French chemist Auguste Verneuil in 1909, sapphire has developed from fake jewelry in 1940s, SOS applications in 1960s, to military applications in late 1960s, according to a paper by Daniel Harris, Naval Air Systems Command, China Lake, California. U.S. and Russian manufacturers dominated military application fields before Asian manufacturers found their golden opportunity in LED applications.