Monthly Archives: October 2013

iPad Air GF2 touch sensor structure made it thin and light weight

Oct 23, 2013

Yesterday, Apple announced its “best iPad ever” –the iPad Air, and the retina display iPad mini.

The iPad Air is especially attractive, with 20% thinner than the iPad 3 (also called the new iPad when it was released in 2012), and 31% lighter than the iPad 3.

What technology made the iPad Air so thin and light weight? Touch Display Research believes the main contributors are

  1. The GF2 touch panel structure,
  2. Narrow bezel touch and display.

Touch Display Research believes the iPad Air used the GF2 (Glass Film with double side transparent conductor) touch structure, compare with the GG (Glass Glass) structure used in the previous iPad. Change one pieces of 9.7” glass to film, Apple could save 0.5mm to 0.8mm in the thickness, and save 0.1 to 0.3 pound in weight.

We also believe the display and touch screen in iPad Air have a narrow bezel than the previous iPad. This contributed to the light weight as well.

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

Samsung Curved OLED Phone Might be Using Glass Substrate

Oct 9, 2013

Samsung’s curved OLED display mobile phone is finally official. The name is Galaxy Round, which will be available in South Korea market from October 10th for $1013.

As we covered last month, Samsung’s head of mobile business marketing, Mr. Lee, announced they are planning to launch a mobile phone with a curved display in October, but gave no specifics on the display. Now here is the spec,

Figure. Samsung Galaxy Round curved phone spec

Samsung round spec

Source: Samsung and Touch Display Research Inc.

Touch Display Research believes that the curved OLED display Samsung used on Galaxy Round mobile phone might be glass substrate, not plastic.  Samsung has registered the trade mark “YOUM” for its plastic AMOLED. But Samsung didn’t mention “YOUM” in its announcement, and didn’t mention “unbreakable” either. Thus we believe the Galaxy Round is using glass substrate.

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

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

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

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