Tag Archives: Sharp

Vehicle Display 2015 Conference is very successful

October 26, 2015

I just came back from the Vehicle Display 2015 Conference, at Dearborn, Michigan. It’s a very successful conference with about 200 attendees.  It’s my honor to meet some of you in person.

Figure 1: Vehicle Display 2015 conference

Vehicle display 2015 audience 2

Photo by: Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, Touch Display Research.

This conference is well mixed of market analysis, and automotive engineers’ paper of how to improve sunlight readability, reduce glare, improve color gamut of display for automotive, and discussions of Head-up display (HUD) and augmented reality for automotive. On behalf of Touch Display Research, I gave a presentation on touch panel, touchless human-machine-interface and flexible display for automotive industry. (We appreciate FlexEnable for sponsoring this speech.)

Figure 2: Dr. Jennifer Colegrove from Touch Display Research presenting

Vehicle display Jenny 2015 with flexenable

Photo by: Dr. Ruffin at Corning.

This year’s conference also have the record high number of exhibitors. Sharp won the “Best in Show” exhibitor award this year. (Futaba won last year).

Figure 3: Sharp won the “Best in Show” award at Vehicle Display 2015 conference. (From left to right: Mr. Booza, Mr.Milne, and Kondo-san.)

Vehicle display 2015 sharp

Photo by: Dr. Jennifer Colegrove, Touch Display Research.

More analysis and review of the Vehicle Display 2015 Conference can be found in the “Touch and Emerging Display” November monthly report.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Applied Materials for IGZO displays

October 16, 2013

On October 16th, Applied Materials announced new technology systems for manufacturing IGZO TFT: the AKT-PiVot® 55K DT PVD, Applied AKT-PiVot 25K DT PVD and Applied AKT 55KS PECVD systems.

Applied Materials supply two sizes of IGZO manufacture equipment: One is for Gen 8.5, 2200mmX2500mm mother glass. One is for Gen 6, 1500mmX1850mm mother glass.

Metal oxide TFT, especially IGZO TFT has been researched for many years. Sharp is the first company to mass produce IGZO TFT since 2012. Although Sharp first announced to produce IGZO TFT in April 2011, it took them one year longer than expected to bring it to mass production. LG started mass produce IGZO TFT for their 55” AMOLED TV since early 2013.

Figure. Applied Materials IGZO manufacture equipment

Applied material PECVD equipment with person

Source: Applied Material, October 2013

I had a chance to meet Applied Materials team: Max, John, Kerry, Ricky, and Amaya recently in their Santa Clara office. I raised the questions of how to improve IGZO’s stability, uniformity and yield. Applied Materials indicated they have solutions for all three issues. Applied indicated they are working closely with four display companies currently.

More analysis and IGZO display roadmap can be found in our Touch and Emerging Display monthly report.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Apple curved OLED display potential suppliers

October 3, 2013

This week Korea news chosun.com reported a rumor that Apple’s iWatch will adopt a “plastic OLED”. It quoted an “industry source” said “Apple is developing three different models of the iWatch — a 1.3-inch, 1.4-inch and 1.5-inch prototype”.

Back in June 2013, Touch Display Research has forecasted that Apple will adopt AMOLED within 18 months.

Some of our industry friends asked me which company might be supplying plastic OLED to Apple.   It is very challenge to get Apple’s insider information, but Touch Display Research believes that 7 companies could be the potential suppliers of flexible curved OLED display: Samsung Display Corp, LG Display, Futaba, AUO, Innolux, Sharp, NVO, etc.

Figure. Potential Suppliers of Flexible and Curved OLED Displays

flexible curved OLED suppliers

Source: Touch Display Research, Flexible and curved display technologies and market forecast, September, 2013

As we covered last week, Samsung has announced to release a mobile phone with curved displays in October 2013. Here are the possibilities for Samsung’s curved display technologies.

Touch Display Research believes the eco-system for flexible and curved displays is maturing. We forecast that the flexible and curved display market will reach $27 Billion by 2023, which is about 16% market share of the global display revenue in 2023. More analysis of curved display and curved touch panel can be found in our newly published Flexible and Curved Display Technologies and Market Forecast 2013 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