Category Archives: Company News

Sharp and Microsoft both use metal-mesh ITO-replacement touch panels

September 19, 2013

I just came back from Touch Taiwan 2013 and the associated International Display Manufacturing Conference (IDMC). With about 400 exhibitors at the show, it was certainly very hot, just like the weather in Taipei.

I had a chance to touch both Sharp and Microsoft’s large size touch panel in Touch Taiwan. Both use metal mesh type ITO-replacement material on their touch panel.

Figure. Sharp metal mesh touch panel (left) and Microsoft metal mesh touch panel (right)

Sharp metal mesh touchMicrosoft metal mesh

Photo: Jennifer Colegrove, Touch Display Research Inc., 2013.

Sharp showcased a series of 20”, 32” and 70” touch panels and claim they have very high performance due to the high SNR (signal noise ratio). Microsoft’s 55” touch demo was showcased in Corning’s booth, as they used Corning’s Gorilla Glass as the cover lens.

Touch Display Research believes that metal-mesh type materials have high conductivity and could fit best on large-sized projected capacitive touch panels. We forecast the ITO-replacement market will grow to about $4 billion by 2020.

Which companies are supplying metal-mesh type transparent conductor? What’s their manufacturing process?  What’s the market share of metal-mesh vs. silver nanowire vs. carbon nanotube vs. conductive polymer vs. graphene? More analysis can be found in our ITO-replacement report and the Touch and Emerging Display monthly report.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

 

Rolith joins the ITO-replacement industry with its metal-mesh transparent conductor

August 13, 2013

As published in our recent “ITO-Replacement: Non-ITO Transparent Conductor Technologies, Supply Chain and Market Forecast” report, there are already 19 companies and research institutes  working on or shipping metal-mesh transparent conductors.

On August 12th, California-based start-up Rolith announced that it has successfully fabricated metal-mesh type transparent conductors using proprietary nanolithography technology. It claims to have fabricated metal mesh of sub-micron width, and can achieve high transparency (>94% transmission) with a very low haze (~2%) and low resistivity (<14 Ohm/☐).

Rolith was founded in 2008 by Dr. Boris Kobrin, Julian Zegelman, and Dr. Mark Brongersma. It received seed funding from Asahi Glass Corp in 2010 and has been developing nanolithography technology for “moth eye” structure for anti-reflection coating. Now, with the same technique and process, but changing the material to conductive ink and the mask pattern to grid pattern, Rolith is entering the ITO-replacement market.

Many characteristics need to be considered when comparing different types of ITO replacement. The figure shown below compares the conductivity and cost.

Figure: ITO-replacement material comparison:  conductivity and cost

ITO replacement compare with TDR

Source: Touch Display Research, ITO-replacement: non-ITO transparent conductor technologies, supply chain and market forecast report, May 2013 version.

Touch Display Research forecast the ITO-replacement market will grow from $206 million this year to $4 billion by 2020.

What are the challenges of Rolith’s technology? What are the advantages and disadvantages of metal mesh? More analysis can be found in our monthly Touch and Emerging Display Report.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

 

A Commendation from SID

May 31, 2013

I’m back from SID 2013 Displayweek conference with an award, given to me by SID president Brian Berkeley for my volunteer work at the SID Bay Area’s first one-day conference in January—”Display and Touch Technologies of the Future.” I really appreciate it!

Figure: SID Certificate of Commendation

SID award

Source: photo by Jennifer Colegrove

It was lots of work to put together a conference like that. Geoff Walker, the former Bay Area chapter chair, came to me and other volunteers last August, and asked us to organize the first one-day conference. After over four months of hard work, the conference was successfully held on January 16th, 2013. It was overwhelmingly successful with 160 attendees. We had to apologize to another twenty-five people on the waiting list, because the venue was not spacious enough for the extra crowd.

To all the volunteer team, this award is also for you:  Geoff, Rashmi, John, Joe, Steve, Cheng-wei, Catherine, Lauren. Thank you and cheers!

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Welcome!

Touch Display Research, Inc, founded by Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, is an independent technology market research and consulting firm specializing in touch screen and emerging display technologies, such as OLED display, OLED lighting, flexible display, e-paper display, 3D display, near-eye display, pocket projectors, quantum dots, gesture control, voice control, eye control.   Touch Display Research provides standard reports, consulting projects and due diligence for touch suppliers, display manufactures, consumer electronic ODMs/OEMs, material suppliers, investor companies, venture capitalist, and companies who are merging or acquiring companies in the touch screen, display and material industry.

TDR’s areas of expertise include the following:

Touch Screens Over a dozen touch technologies, suppliers, industry trends.
OLED display active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED), passive matrix OLED, flexible OLED display, suppliers, industry trends
Touch-less control gesture control, voice control, eye control
New materials ITO replacement materials, ITO-coated glass & film. Quantum Dots.
OLED lighting Technologies, suppliers and market
Flexible displays Technologies, suppliers and market
e-Paper displays low power displays
Near-eye display Technologies, suppliers and market
Pocket projector Technologies, suppliers and market

 

The key characteristic that differentiates Touch Display Research from other market research firms is:

  1. Highly educated engineer turned analyst with in-depth of technology understanding,
  2. A high level of experience and knowledge in the specialty technology areas
  3. Insight of the market trends through massive survey of industry contacts.
  4. Passion for our industry, to provide the best analysis and business strategy recommendations for clients,
  5. Low price, (since we have no overhead).