Tag Archives: 3M

3M’s metal mesh touch screen patents and lawsuits interview

August 24, 2018  By Jennifer Colegrove, Ph.D. Principal Analyst, Touch Display Research Inc.

This week 3M announced a patent infringement lawsuit again a touch panel supplier Tovis, its subsidiary Tovis North America, and Scientific Games Corporation. The suit alleges that certain Tovis touch display products which are used by Scientific Games in their gaming machines infringe 3M’s U.S. Patents 8,179,381; 9,823,786; 8,274,494; and 8,704,799.

In the “ITO-replacement: transparent conductor market 2017 report, Seventh edition”, Touch Display Research profiled over three hundred companies working on non-ITO transparent conductors. Metal mesh is one of the most popular transparent conductor materials and is widely used in projected capacitive touch sensors for smart phones, active pen touch tablets and notebooks, and in large-format, digital touch signage.

Figure: ITO Replacement 2017 Report

Source: Touch Display Research Inc., ITO-Replacement Report, February 2017

Earlier this year, 3M filed a similar patent infringement lawsuit against Elo Touch Solutions Inc.

“3M invests substantially in research and development to create innovative products for our customers,” said Makoto Ishii, vice president and general manager, 3M Display Materials and Systems Division. “We will defend our intellectual property protecting those investments against unauthorized use and infringement by metal mesh manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, and others making use of 3M’s intellectual property rights.”

Touch Display Research interviewed Mr. Scott Hagermoser, Global Business Manager of 3M Touch Systems about metal mesh patents and the lawsuit. I asked that since metal mesh is a widely used ITO-replacement transparent conductor, what was the optimal result that 3M expected from this legal action. Mr. Hagermoser indicated, “3M doesn’t want to be overly disruptive to the touch industry; we are not a patent troll organization. We offer to license our metal mesh technologies so we can get compensation for our investment.”

Metal mesh suppliers have different patterns and structures, such as one film with two sides of metal mesh, or two films where each side has one metal mesh.  I asked if it was possible that some metal mesh companies could avoid 3M’s metal mesh patents. Mr. Hagermoser indicated 3M had many claims in their metal mesh patents, and the details have to be left to the lawyers and engineers to figure out.

I asked if 3M is also suing Microsoft for the metal mesh, Mr. Hagermoser said that he won’t comment on that.

I’ve been the first industry analyst to write market research reports about the touch screen industry since 2006. When I saw the trends of new transparent conductive material used on touch screens, I published the industry’s first “ITO-Replacement: Transparent Conductor Market Report” in 2013. Many touch screen manufacturers, display manufacturers, OEM/ODMs are my good industry friends. I don’t like to see them sue each other. However, on the other hand, I don’t like the thought of intellectual property theft. We should play the game fairly. I recommend when your company manufactures or purchases metal mesh touch screens, you inquire if that touch screen is clear from others patents.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team

QLED name for the whole display industry to use

August 21, 2017 by Jennifer Colegrove Ph.D., Principal Analyst, Touch Display Research Inc.

I’ve been writing articles about quantum dot technologies since 2008. In 2013, I surveyed many quantum dot suppliers and published the first “Quantum Dot Display (QLED) and Lighting Technologies and Market Forecast Report”. According to my industry friend, a CTO at a famous quantum dot company, he said, “Jennifer, you are the first analyst who wrote a quantum dot market report, as far as I know.”

Quantum dot (including quantum rod, or tetrapod-shaped quantum dot) could improve picture quality of displays dramatically in terms of color gamut, color accuracy and reducing power consumption compared to conventional Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)/ Light Emitting Diode (LED) displays. This is one of the biggest breakthrough technologies for display in several years. Quantum dot LCD is challenging AMOLED displays.

  • QD Vision and Sony brought quantum dot TVs to the market in 2013.
  • Nanosys, 3M and Amazon brought quantum dot tablet PCs to the market in 2013.
  • Samsung announced the first Cadmium-free quantum dot TV at CES 2015, and has been commercializing it since Q1 2015.
  • LG Electronics also announced quantum dot TV at CES 2015, (but later LG changed strategy about quantum dot).
  • Quantum dot was a hot topic at CES 2015 to 2017, at SID DisplayWeek from 2013 to 2017, and at IFA 2014 to 2017.

According to the “Quantum Dot Display and Lighting Technologies and Market Forecast 2017 Report”, the quantum dot display has grown from zero dollar revenue in 2012 to a billion-dollar display category in 2017. The quantum dot display formed a new category—QLED (Quantum dot based Light Emitting Diode).

The definition of QLED has not yet been defined within the display industry. In the early years, “QLED”, or “QDEL”, or “QD-LED” were used in academic papers to call the electro-luminescent (EL) types of quantum dot. When an electric current is applied to these types of material, it will generate light. At this moment in 2017, the EL types of quantum dot are still in the R&D stage.

Currently, 100% the quantum dot display that is commercially available is the photo-luminescent (PL) type quantum dot. When a short wavelength light (such as blue light) shines on a certain quantum dot, then it can emit a longer wavelength light (such as green or red).

In 2016, Samsung Electronics has applied for the trademark “Samsung QLED TV” with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Samsung indicated that although they own the “Samsung QLED TV” trade mark, the “QLED” name is a common term like OLED TV or LED TV. “QLED” can be used by the whole display industry as a category name to call any displays with quantum dots in it.

Figure: QLED category includes PL (Photo-luminescent) and EL (Electro-luminescent) types of quantum dot

Source: Touch Display Research, 2017

Touch Display Research believes it is a good idea to use QLED as an umbrella name (or category name) to call any displays with quantum dots in it. Under the QLED umbrella name, the photo-luminescent (PL) type quantum dot can be called QLED PL type.  The electro-luminescent (EL) types of quantum dot can be called QLED EL type.

QLED is a nice and short name. There is no need to reserve the QLED name for the EL type quantum dot only, since EL type is not in the market yet. When the EL type quantum dot enters the market (we forecast it will be after 2019), we can call it: QLED EL type under the QLED umbrella.

In April 2017, three large TV suppliers (Samsung, Hisense, TCL), a supply chain (Nanosys), and five large retailers in China (GOME Electrical Appliances, Suning Commerce Group, JD.com, Five Star and Sundan) have agreed to form the QLED TV Alliance in Beijing China. TCL has also enhanced the support of QLED by launching new QLED TVs globally since May.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team

New Trends

 

About Touch Display Research Inc.

Touch Display Research, Inc. (www.TouchDisplayResearch.com) is a technology market research and consulting firm specializing in touch screen and emerging display technologies such as OLED displays, quantum dots, flexible displays, e-paper displays, ITO-replacement, Active pen, near-eye displays, gesture controls, voice recognition, and eye tracking. Touch Display Research helps technology companies grow and connecting their technologies to the marketplace. We have been writing about OLED industry for over 10 years. We were the first company to publish Quantum Dot market reports. We were the first company to publish Active Pen market report, and ITO-replacement market report.  We have always been there to analyze new and emerging technologies. Touch Display Research provides reports, consulting, and due diligence to touch suppliers, display manufacturers, consumer electronics ODMs/OEMs, material suppliers, investors and venture capitalists. We are member of Flextech Alliance, SEMI and SID.

 

Google’s Jamboard large touch screen is using metal mesh or silver nanowire

October 28, 2016

This week, Google announced its 55 inch touch display named Jamboard. Touch Display Research believes the Jamboard’s touch screen is using metal mesh or silver nanowire.

Touch screen with ITO-replacement is gaining momentum for >50” sizes category.

3M showed 55-inch touch table with metal mesh touch screen.

C3Nano demonstrated 55-inch silver nanowire transparent conductor touch display.

Microsoft has released their 55-inch and 84-inch interactive Surface Hub that can sense both finger touch and active pen.

In the ITO Replacement—Non-ITO Transparent Conductor Technologies, Supply Chain and Market Forecast 2016 Report, sixth edition, Touch Display Research analyzed over 240 companies and research institutes working on advanced transparent conductive (TC) materials. The report provides a detailed analysis of metal mesh, silver nanowire, carbon nano tube (CNT), conductive polymer, graphene, and other technologies. Figure here is the comparison of several transparent conductors.

Figure: ITO replacement comparison chart

ITO replacement compare with TDR2016

Source: Touch Display Research Inc., ITO-Replacement Report, 2016

Touch Display Research forecasts that the ITO-replacement market will reach $13 billion by 2023. The ITO-replacement industry has made good progress in the touch panel and other applications in the past two years. However, not all companies are growing and you need to be very selective. The specifications of over thirty metal mesh suppliers are compared side-by-side in one chart in the Excel database.

Touch Display Research forecast that ITO-replacement will become the major transparent conductor for touch panels after 2021. ITO will be the minor transparent conductor for touch panels.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team

Touch screen with ITO-replacement going to mainstream

June 15, 2016

Touch screen with ITO-replacement is gaining momentum for >50-inch sizes category. We can see this trend at SID 2016 DisplayWeek.

3M showed 55-inch touch table with metal mesh touch screen.

C3Nano demonstrated 55-inch silver nanowire transparent conductor touch display.

Microsoft’s keynote discussed their 55-inch and 84-inch interactive Surface Hub that can sense both finger touch and active pen.

In the ITO Replacement—Non-ITO Transparent Conductor Technologies, Supply Chain and Market Forecast 2016 Report, sixth edition, Touch Display Research analyzed over 240 companies and research institutes working on advanced transparent conductive (TC) materials. The report provides a detailed analysis of metal mesh, silver nanowire, carbon nano tube (CNT), conductive polymer, graphene, and other technologies.

Touch Display Research forecasts that the ITO-replacement market will reach $13 billion by 2023.

Figure: ITO replacement comparison chart

ITO replacement compare with TDR2016

Source: Touch Display Research Inc., ITO-Replacement Report, 2016

The ITO-replacement industry has made good progress in the touch panel and other applications in the past two years. However, not all companies are growing and you need to be very selective. The specifications of over thirty metal mesh suppliers are compared side-by-side in one chart in the Excel database.

We forecast that ITO-replacement will become the major transparent conductor for touch panels after 2021. ITO will be the minor transparent conductor for touch panels.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jennifer Colegrove and team

 

 

 

AUO Quantum Dot TV Adopted 3M and Nanosys QDEF

September 1st, 2015

Today, 3M, Nanosys and AUO announced that AUO will commercialize quantum dot TV with 3M and Nanosys’ QDEF by end of this year.

Actually, I saw the AUO’s 85” quantum dot TV last week at Touch Taiwan and IDMC (International Display Manufacturing Conference) 2015 conference.  The 85” quantum dot TV won the Gold Panel Award at Touch Taiwan 2015 exhibition.

Figure 1: AUO’s 85” quantum dot TV won Gold Panel Award at Touch Taiwan 2015

AUO 85 QD TV with TDR

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

The impact of this news is dramatic, since AUO is a panel supplier, they could sell the QD TV panel to any TV brands. This will accelerate the QD TV’s penetration.

In the recently published “Quantum dot display and lighting technologies and market forecast 2015 report”, second edition, Touch Display Research forecast that the quantum dot display and lighting component market will surpass $2 billion by 2016, and reach $10.6 billion by 2025. This report profiles over 60 companies working on quantum dot materials and quantum dot components.

Figure 2. Quantum Dot Display and Lighting component market forecast (2015 to 2025)

QD forecast 2015

Source: Touch Display Research, Quantum Dot Display and Lighting Technologies and Market Forecast 2015 Report

Quantum dot technology could improve Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) dramatically in terms of color gamut, color accuracy and reducing power consumption. This is one of the biggest breakthrough technologies for LCD in recent several years. We forecast quantum dot components will have a rapid penetration into displays and lighting from 2015 to 2025.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

 

SID 2014: quantum dot

Yesterday, we discussed this year SID DisplayWeek’s No. 1 trend: ITO-replacement.
Here we discuss about the No. 2 trend: quantum dot.
Over 10 companies showed quantum dot at SID 2014. Some are in the exhibition floor; some showed us through invitation-only meetings.
Touch Display Research was invited to Dow and Nanoco’s meeting in Marriott Marquis hotel on June 2, 2014. I had a chance to meet Mr. Lee, Director of Dow Electric Material. Dow has signed exclusive contract with Nanoco to mass produce its Cadmium-free quantum dot in 2012. Since 2012, Dow’s investment in engineering has further fine-tuned Nanoco’s Cd-free quantum dot technology.

Figure: Dow demo Cd-free quantum dot TV
Dow QD TV TDR
Source: Dow and Nanoco, photo by Touch Display Research, June 2014.

At SID 2014, 3M and Nanosys announced their QDEF design-win on ASUS’s notebook PC.
Quantum dot could improve Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) dramatically in terms of color gamut, color accuracy and reducing power consumption. This is one of the biggest breakthrough technologies for LCD in recent several years. Now quantum dot LCD is challenging AMOLED.
In Touch Display Research’s recently published “Quantum dot display and lighting technologies and market forecast” report, we surveyed many quantum dot suppliers and found that the quantum dot display component market already surpassed $70 million in 2013. Over 30 companies are working on quantum dot display. We forecast that the quantum dot display and lighting component market will expand to $508 million in 2014, and reach $9.6 billion by 2023.

Thanks for reading,
Jennifer and team

 

3M announced metal mesh, silver nanowire and ITO film

December 17, 2013

It’s not a secret that 3M is developing metal mesh. What pleasantly surprised me is that 3M officially announced all 3 transparent conductor films: metal mesh film, silver nanowire film with Cambrios and ITO film.

I had the chance to talk to 3M’s marketing manager, Mr. Erik Lood, recently.  I asked him why you supply ITO film and ITO-replacement film at the same time. He indicated, “We want to offer our customers all the choices: good, better, best. Customers can choose.”

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

How visible is 3M’s metal mesh lines? I’ll find out when I meet 3M in a few weeks.

More analysis can be found in our “Touch and Emerging Display report” December 2013 issue and Jan 2014 issue.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team