Category Archives: Company News

CES 2017: the battle between OLED and Quantum Dot

Jan 17th, 2017, by Touch Display Research

At CES 2017, the battle between OLED display and Quantum Dot display is heating up.

Figure: CES 2017

Samsung QLED TV CES 2017 sign

Photo source: Jennifer Colegrove

Samsung, TCL, Hisense are geared up of new TVs with quantum dot technologies in them.

LG, Sony, Skyworth are showing more and larger OLED TVs.

There also comes Nano Cell and Nano Color.

Who will won this battle? Which company will benefit? Why did Samsung acquire QD Vision? What is the new form factors of quantum dot? What are the new directions of OLED?

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, CEO and Principal Analyst at Touch Display Research will give a presentation about OLED vs Quantum Dot market to 2027 at the one-day conference (Feb 3, 2017) hosted by the SID Los Angeles chapter in Costa Mesa, California, and will visit companies in the area.

Society for Information Display Los Angeles Chapter 2017 one-day conference, will be held at Costa Meda, California on February 3rd, 2017. It’s a One-Day Focused Technical and Business Conference. LA Chapter director: Larry Tannas. Chapter Chairman: Larry Iboshi.  Location: Costa Mesa Country Club, 1701 Golf Course Drive, Costa Mesa CA 92626. February 3, 2017 8AM-4:00PM. The conference website is: http://www.sid.org/Chapters/Americas/LosAngelesChapter/Symposium.aspx

Hope to see you at the conference.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team

Quantum dots making big progress at SID 2016

May 27, 2016

At SID 2016 DisplayWeek, quantum dot is continued to be hot topic, even hotter than last year.(see our blog about last year’s SID).

Nanosys announced two good news. Nanosys announced that Hitachi Chemical and Nanosys have partnered in the development of QDEF (quantum dot enhancement film) for display applications. Hitachi Chemical plans to begin shipping QDEF in mass production volumes during the 2nd half of 2016.

Nanosys also announced a breakthrough quantum dot film—Hyperion. Hyperion Quantum Dots have Cadmium in it, but very little, below 90 ppm. In the European Union’s Restriction on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, it requests any component with Cadmium must be <100 ppm (which is 0.01%). RoHS never requests Cd-free. Now, Hyperion QDs meet this requirement, so it doesn’t need to request exemption. Touch Display Research believes this is very clever. How is Hyperion’s performance? More analysis of Hyperion can be found in the Touch and Emerging Display monthly report.

Figure: Nanosys quantum dot demo at SID 2016.

Nanosys SID 2016 booth with TDR2

Photo by: Touch Display Research

QD Vision also showed TVs with Color IQ and new TPV’s AOC brand monitors with Color IQ in them. Three new quantum dot companies had shown Touch Display Research their QD samples recently.

In the recently published “Quantum Dot 2016 Report (Third Edition),” Touch Display Research surveyed many quantum dot suppliers, display manufacturers and OEMs, and analyzed and forecasted the quantum dot display component market with detail of material type and form factor. This report profiles over 80 companies working on quantum dot materials and quantum dot components. Touch Display Research forecasts the overall QD display component and lighting and QLED market will surpass $2 billion by 2017, and reach $10.8 billion by 2026.

Figure 2. Quantum dot component for display and lighting market forecast

quantum dot forecast 2016

Source: Touch Display Research, Quantum dot 2016 report

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team

 

NextFlex is born

October 29, 2015

Started last year, FlexTech Alliance, a research consortium and trade association, (of which Touch Display research is a member), proposed to US government a San Jose-based hub to create the FHE MII (Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute) which comprises 96 companies, 11 laboratories and non-profits, 43 universities, and 15 state and regional organizations. This broad-based support underscores the market potential for flexible hybrid electronics, and reaffirms Silicon Valley’s role as an essential hub for innovation.

On August 28, 2015, The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awarded FlexTech Alliance a Cooperative Agreement to establish and manage a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII) for Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE MII). The award is for $75 million in federal funding over a five-year period and is being matched by more than $96 million in cost sharing from non-federal sources, including the City of San Jose, private companies, universities, several U.S. states, and not-for-profit organizations.

On October 29, 2015, FlexTech Alliance announced the new name for FHE MII (Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute) to be NextFlex. It’s website is nextflex.us

Figure: NextFlex logo

nextflex logo

source: NextFlex

NextFlex will be headquartered in San Jose. The Institute will distribute R&D funds via competitively-bid project calls. Happy birthday NextFlex!

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

SID 2015 advanced and comprehensive exhibitor: BOE

June 8, 2015

SID 2015 DisplayWeek was held in San Jose, California last week. We blogged about the SID Monday Seminar last week.

Here is the summary of exhibitions at SID 2015. This year there were about 195 exhibitors at the show floor. After visit the whole exhibitions for 3 days, my conclusion is that this year one of the most advanced and comprehensive exhibitor is BOE.  BOE not only demoed a 10K LCD, (see picture here), but also showed metal mesh touch screen, AMOLED display, quantum dot display and more.

Figure: BOE 82 inch 10K display at SID 2015 DisplayWeek.

BOE 10K TDR

Photo by: Touch Display Research Inc.

The interesting thing is that Samsung is no-show at this year’s SID. In the past several years, Samsung had always put together one of the most splendid booth and showcase the “world’s first”, or “world’s largest”, or the “world’s most advanced” at SID. But at this year’s SID, Samsung completely no show, no paper.  It seems Samsung is following Apple’s example: no show, no paper at SID.

Figure: Samsung’s booth at last year’s SID 2014 DisplayWeek.

Samsung OLED sid14

Photo by: Touch Display Research Inc.

More analysis about BOE, Samsung, Apple, OLED, quantum dot, metal mesh, and silver nanowire will be in the “Touch and Emerging Display monthly report”, June 2015 issue.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

MultiTouch Silicon Valley event

October 9, 2014
Today, we were invited and attended MultiTouch Ltd.’s event in Silicon Valley, California.
MultiTouch Ltd. was founded in 2007 with headquarter in Finland. In 2009 it opened an office in Silicon Valley, recently they moved to this new office in Los Gatos. We had a chance to meet with their CEO, Mr. Petri Martikainen and General Manager, Mr. Timo Korpela.

Figure. MultiTouch Silicon Valley event
Multitouch CEO GM with TDR
Photo by: Touch Display Research Inc., October 2014

The reason that MultiTouch calls their technology MultiTaction is to emphasize that it’s more than multi-touch; their technology could sense IR pen, objects, 2D barcode, and unlimited finger touch.
Analysis and comparison with large size projected capacitive touch panel will be found in our “Touch and Emerging Display” October 2014 report.

Thanks for reading,
Jennifer and team

New trends in touch: ITO-replacement, active pen, touchless control

Aug 6, 2014
We just published an article in SID Information Display Journal, July/August 2014 issue—New Trends in Touch.

Figure. SID Information Display Journal
Information Display July Aug 14 cover
Source: SID Information Display, July/August 2014

With touch panels becoming ubiquitous, the touch industry is undergoing rapid change. Touch Display Research Inc. reports on its most recent survey of the leading manufacturers in the touch-screen, ITO replacement material, active pen and touchless control industry.

Here is the link to the full article. You can become a SID member right now on their website: www.sid.org.

Thanks for reading,
Jennifer and team

Qeexo software can tell finger touch from knuckle touch

May 29, 2014
Today Qeexo announced it raised $2.3 million series A funding, led by Sierra Ventures.
Last week I had a chance to meet Qeexo’s CEO Mr. Sang Won Lee, and their head of business development, Mr. Jason Liang and got to know this start-up company. Qeexo is pronounced as “Kick, So”. It was founded in September 2012.
Mr. Lee demonstrated their software, named “FingerSense” to me on a Samsung smartphone. See figure here. With this software add on a typical smart phone, the touch screen could tell if it’s a finger touch, or knuckle touch, or a stylus touch.
Figure. Qeexo demo on a smart phone
Qeexo fingerQeexo knuckleqeexo menu
Source: Qeexo. Photo by Jennifer Colegrove

Qeexo indicated the FingerSense is software only, and can be deployed on today’s mobile devices without adding any hardware. Mr. Lee indicated the touch industry has come from single touch to multi-touch, the next wave will be “rich touch”.
Qeexo is currently in discussions with a number of mobile device manufacturers to embed FingerSense into their devices or license the software.
More analysis will be in our “Touch and Emerging Display” report. You can subscribe to the report right now on this website.
Thanks for reading,
Jennifer and team

We become a Silver Corporate Member of SID

April 24, 2014
This month, Touch Display Research is very glad to announce that we just joined the Society for Information Display (SID) and become their Silver Corporate Member.
I’ve been attending SID conferences and reading SID’s journals since when I was a Ph.D. student at Liquid Crystal Institutes of Kent State University. It has been over 15 years. Now we are very glad our company, Touch Display Research Inc. becomes a silver corporate member of SID.
Figure. SID Silver Corporate Members
SID silver members
Source: SID.org website
Touch Display Research gave presentation at SID LA chapter one-day symposium on February 7, 2014.

Touch Display Research attended SID Display Week 2013 and blogged it.

I volunteered for SID Bay Area’s first one-day conference in January 2013.

Touch Display Research gave presentation at SID Display Week 2013, Touch and Gesture Motion conference on May 22, 2013.

We look forward to growing and contributing to SID. SID’s website is www.sid.org.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Visit of Light Blue Optics about touch and pen

April 17, 2014

I’m traveling in Cambridge, England today. I had a chance to visit Light Blue Optics (LBO). Dr. Nic Lawrence, director of product management, and Ms. Evelyne Donnaes, Software team leader at LBO, showed me their touch and pen technologies.

The last time I visit LBO in Cambridge is about 6 years ago when they were developing laser based pocket projectors. Since 2011, LBO has changed business direction and developed optical touch technology. LBO’s expertise is in the touch software, which they named Light Touch.

In January 2014, Light Blue Optics and Promethean announced the integration of LBO’s advanced Light Touch™ technology into ActivWall – Promethean’s newest digital classroom projection offering.

Figure: Promethean ActivWall with Light Blue Optics touch technology

LBO Promethean

Source: Promethean and LBO

The ActivWall is an interactive digital surface that may be positioned both “front and back” in the classroom. In order to design digital classroom surfaces that allow multiple groups of students to simultaneously collaborate, the new ActivWall features Light Blue Optics’ unique Light Touch™ technology that supports differentiated pen (i.e. the system identifies whether the contact is a pen or touch and operates accordingly) and up to 20 simultaneous touches. LBO also claims their system is lower cost than competitors.

Detail analysis, comparisons of touch and pen technologies can be found in our monthly report: Touch and Emerging Display report, April 2014 issue.

Thanks for reading.

Jennifer and team

 

We become a member of FlexTech Alliance

March 17, 2014

Touch Display Research is very glad to announce that we just joined FlexTech Alliance and become their new member.

FlexTech Alliance has been providing tremendous amount of help to Touch Display Research since we established over one year ago.

Touch Display Research attended FlexTech Flexible and Printed Electronic 2013 conference and blogged it.

Touch Display Research gave presentation at FlexTech workshop: Emerging Materials and Processes for Transparent Conductors, July 10, 2013.

Touch Display Research had exhibition booth at FlexTech 2014FLEX conference.

We look forward to growing and contributing to FlexTech Alliance. FlexTech’s website is www.flextech.org.

Thanks for reading.

Jennifer and team.