Tag Archives: metal mesh

Atmel XSense fab tour in Colorado Spring

November 5, 2013

Atmel XSense is one of the metal mesh types ITO-replacement transparent conductor for touch panel. Atmel announced mass production of XSense in early 2013. The first design-win is the ASUS’s tablet PC.

I recently interviewed Atmel’s director Mr. Rusty Stapp, he showed me the ASUS tablet PC, several new demos and different size XSense touch sensors: flat or curved.

Atmel invited me for a fab tour of their XSense fab this week. I’m in Colorado Spring currently, and I’m very excited and looking forward for the fab tour tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer

TPK, Cambrios and NISSHA Expand Joint Venture

October 4, 2013

On October 3rd, Cambrios, TPK and NISSHA signed the expansion of joint venture– TPK Film Solution.

Back in August, in our “Touch and Emerging Display” monthly report, we’ve reported that TPK will produce silver nanowire type film touch panel by end of this year.

The interesting thing of yesterday’s news is that NISSHA also joined it. NISSHA has been producing ITO film touch panel before.

ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) is currently the mainstream transparent conductor. However, due to its high cost, long process and fragility, non-ITO type transparent conductors are gaining momentum.

Over 180 companies and research institutes are working on ITO replacement in 2013. Sixteen companies and research institutes are working on silver nanowire. Metal mesh, carbon nanotube, conductive polymer and graphene are also popular ITO-replacement transparent conductors.

Figure: Non-ITO transparent conductors vs. companies

ITO alternative figure

Source: Touch Display Research, ITO-replacement report, May 2013

What is the market size and forecast for ITO replacement transparent conductors?  What’s the price of transparent conductive film? Which transparent conductor is suitable for which application? Which direction should you invest in non-ITO transparent conductors? A detailed analysis can be found in our “ITO replacement–Non-ITO Transparent Conductor Technologies, Supply Chain and Market Forecast Report.”

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

O-Film increases touch panel revenue

October 2, 2013

I met Vico, Simon and Johann in California recently, the marketing team of O-Film, and the one-hour meeting turned to two hours. The team is very knowledgeable on the touch screen industry. O-Film is headquartered in China with sales offices worldwide. Their touch panel products include ITO-film type touch panels, metal mesh film touch panels, and One-Glass-Solution (OGS).

Figure. O-Film’s touch panel

O film touch

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

Many Taiwan touch suppliers consider O-Film a strong competitor, since O-Film has recently landed orders from not only Chinese but also Taiwanese ODM/OEMs.

I asked O-film if they have met with companies in Silicon Valley such as Apple, HP…. They smiled and said, “Whatever companies you can think of, we’ve talked to them.”

Touch Display Research believes that high conductivity transparent conductors could fit best on large size projected capacitive touch panels. We forecast the ITO-replacement market will grow to about $4 billion by 2020.

More analysis about O-Film can be found in our ITO-replacement report and Touch and Emerging Display monthly report.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

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