Monthly Archives: February 2015

2015 FLEX conference review

February 27, 2015

I just came back from the 2015 FLEX conference in Monterey California. There were about 600 attendees this year, a little more than last year. It was great to meet some of you in person.

At 2015 FLEX conference, Professor HK Chung from Sungkyunkwan University in Korea gave a keynote presentation titled “Plastic Revolution”.

Professor Chung first introduced the history of flexible AMOLED and his work at Samsung when he was the VP there.  Then he discussed the challenges of flexible OLED. He indicated, “I used to say LCD is a dumb display. Now I had to say LCD is very smart, you only need to change the backlight, add quantum dot to get vivid pictures, you don’t need to change much in the front plane.”

Figure. SKK University Professor HK Chung giving presentation

HK Chung

Photo by: Jennifer Colegrove, Feb 2015.

At 2015 FLEX conference, on behalf of Touch Display Research, I gave a presentation titled “Touchless bio sensor technologies and market forecast”. I discussed the market of gesture control, voice command, eye tracking, proximity touch and human motion sensors.

Figure. Touch Display Research Dr. Colegrove giving presentation

Jenny 2015 flex

Photo by: Ms. Stoeva, Brewer Science, Feb 2015.

Sensors and wearables are hot topics at this year’s FLEX conference.  More reviews can be found in the Touch and Emerging Display monthly report, February issue and March issue.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Atmel exits metal mesh

February 9, 2015

On February 4th, 2015, Atmel announced it decided to exit the XSense (Metal mesh type ITO-replacement) business.

It’s sad to see Atmel closing the Xsense fab in Colorado. I actually toured the XSense cleanroom in Colorado fab in November 2013.

As we wrote three months ago, in our “ITO-replacement: non-ITO transparent conductor technology and market forecast report”, 4th edition, “Metal mesh transparent conductor is facing obstacles due to optical and yield issues. Metal mesh manufacturers need to consider new strategies to increase market share.”

Figure. ITO replacement report 4th edition

ITO replacement 4th edition cover

Source: Touch Display Research, November 2014.

This report profiles over 220 companies and research institutes working on advanced transparent conductive (TC) materials and provides a detailed analysis of metal mesh, carbon nano tube (CNT), conductive polymer, silver nanowire, graphene, and other technologies.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team