Tag Archives: Touch screen

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

 

Our Mission at Touch Display Research

July 11, 2013

Our mission is to provide accurate industry knowledge, up-to-date information, forward-thinking analysis and the best business strategy recommendations to our clients.

Jenny sit

At SID 2013 I visited LG Display’s exhibition booth and asked the booth attendants about their flexible AMOLED. Another visitor happened to be standing there looking at the flexible AMOLED too. I asked the LG booth attendants, “Does this flexible display use the color filter method?”

The LG booth people answered, “No, this demo doesn’t use a color filter.”

I nodded. At this point, the other visitor jumped in and said, “OLED doesn’t need a color filter, it’s not LCD.”   The visitor looked like an intelligent young man, but only knew part of the technology. I explained to him, “Some OLEDs use a color filter––LG’s OLED TV uses white OLED plus a color filter.” 

The young visitor looked at me with doubt, “Really? I don’t think so.” Then he started to talk to the LG booth people, “I saw your CEO gave a keynote two days ago.” The LG booth people asked, “Where?”

The young visitor said, “The keynote at the beginning of this SID.”

I came to SID 2013 on Tuesday afternoon and missed the keynote talk that morning, but I knew the keynote speaker had been Samsung Display’s CEO, not LG’s CEO. I said, “That was Samsung’s.”  The LG booth people also said, “Our CEO didn’t come this time. Maybe it was Samsung’s.”

But the young visitor didn’t hear me, and kept chatting with the LG booth people.

I walked away with a bit of heartbreak and sympathy for the young visitor.

I recently saw presentation slides from a university professor. In one slide he indicated IGZO TFT was still in R&D stage. I looked at the presentation time––March 2013. I know that Sharp announced the mass production of IGZO TFT in April 2011, and finally mass produced it in April 2012. I met Sharp’s CTO in April 2012. Obviously, that professor had out-dated information and hadn’t followed Sharp’s progress in IGZO.

There are many people like that young visitor and the professor who only know part of the technology, part of the story, and unfortunately provide wrong opinions. They don’t know that AMOLED can have color filter too, they can’t tell Samsung from LG, they don’t know that Sharp has already mass-produced IGZO since 2012, but they are willing to spread wrong information.   

I’m concerned about these people and the people they advise. I feel as a Ph.D. and experienced technology analyst, I have the responsibility to provide to my clients correct knowledge, up-to-date information, forward-thinking analysis, and best business strategies.

E Ink Flexible and Color Displays Leap Ahead at SID 2013 Displayweek

May 23, 2013

I’m in beautiful Vancouver, BC this week to attend and give a speech at the SID 2013 Displayweek conference.

At E Ink’s exhibition booth, their director of product management Giovanni showed me several flexible electrophoretic display products and color displays. As I blogged in January, flexible and color displays were the main focus of E Ink at the Flextech Alliance’s Flexible Display 2013 conference, but at this SID is one big leap ahead. The flexible display jumped from a 4.3” active matrix announced in January, to 13.3” flexible active matrix in this May demonstration. The color display added the three color pigment, which they called “Spectra.”

Figure: E Ink booth at SID 2013 Displayweek conference

E ink spectra

Source: Jennifer Colegrove

How does E Ink’s “Spectra” work, and how fast does it switch? When will E Ink’s flexible active matrix display be on the market? What’s the technology used in the 13.3” flexible active matrix display? What’s the flexible active matrix display roadmap through 2015? A detailed analysis will be in the upcoming “Touch and Emerging Display Monthly Report”, May 2013 issue.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

ITO Replacement Companies

May 18, 2013

Over 180 companies and research institutes are working on ITO replacement in 2013. 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. Transparent conductor applications include touch sensors, displays, lighting, thin-film solar (PV), smart windows, and EMI shielding.

Graphene is the most researched non-ITO material with 41 companies and research institutes working on it. Carbon nanotube and metal mesh are the number two and three.  Twenty-nine companies supply non-ITO transparent conductive film. Twenty-one companies supply the nano ink or powder.

Figure: Non-ITO transparent conductors vs. companies

ITO alternative figure

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

Several companies are already mass producing these advanced transparent conductive materials. Atmel has been mass producing XSense for several months. Fujifilm is currently expanding its EXCLEAR capacity. UniPixel is starting the mass production of UniBoss. Cambrios is leading the silver nanowire transparent conductor.

What is the market size and forecast for ITO replacement transparent conductors?  What’s the manufacturing process of different metal meshes? 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

N-trig: Pen and Touch Technology

May 7, 2013

I’m a believer in simultaneous finger and pen touch. See my blog from January: “Microsoft’s Jeff Han keynote at the SID Bay Area Display and Touch Technology of the Future conference.”

Today I had the chance to meet N-trig, one of the leading suppliers of active pen technology, DuoSense. Gary Baum, the AVP of product marketing at N-trig showed me dozens of pens and demonstrated the palm rejection and hover features of their technology.

Figure: N-trig’s pen and touch on Fujitsu’s hybrid notebook tablet PC

Ntrig demo on Fujitsu

Source: N-trig, photo by Jennifer Colegrove

Several companies have announced plans to supply active pens. I asked Gary what he thinks about the competitors. Gary smiled and said, “It took Wacom over twenty years to get the pen right. And it took us over ten years to have the best pen. I don’t think other competitors can catch up so fast, it’ll take them at least three, four, or five generations of pens to get it right.  On the other hand, it’s a good thing to see more competitors, since it means the market is demanding a pen.”

What new products will N-trig release in the next few months? How much funding has N-trig received? Who are the other competitors in the active pen industry and what are their roadmaps? What are the critical characteristics of the best user experience with pens? What’s the market forecast for active pen technology?  A detailed analysis can be found in the Touch and Emerging Display Monthly Report.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer and team

Microsoft Jeff Han keynote about touch and pen technologies

Jeff Han keynote with cr2I volunteered for SID (Society of Information Display) Bay-Area chapter, and helped with organizing the first 1-day “Display and Touch Technologies of the future 2013” conference as a conference co-chair. After 5 months of preparation, the 1-day conference was held on Jan 16th, 2013, and it was overwhelmingly successful with 160 attendees.

Microsoft’s Jeff Han and Intel’s Achin Bhowmik gave keynote presentations.

I had the honor to introduce the morning keynote: Jeff Han, General manager of Microsoft office division. Jeff Han was famous about promoting multi-touch since 2006, 1 year before the Apple’s iPhone in the market. Han was the CEO, founder and chief scientist of Perceptive Pixel since 2006. Han was named to Time magazine’s listing of the 100 Most Influential People in The World in 2008. His company was acquired by Microsoft mid-2012.

Jeff Han brought a 50” touch screen display demo to this 2013 conference. In his keynote, he first showed the video of touch being used by CNN for the president election news. Then he introduced some advanced research that Microsoft is doing. He walked to his touch display and demoed the touch and pen writing. He said, “When you are in the drawing mode, then you want to go to the next page, you do a swipe. But the screen shows you a line. Now you realized that you are in the drawing mode, not the touch mode. Then you have to go here, click this button to switch to touch mode. You see, that break the flow.” He emphasized that with simultaneous touch and pen technology, user can have the smooth flow.

As Jeff Han emphasized that with simultaneous touch and pen technology, user can have the smooth flow to work on the touch display.

Another touch company has touch and pen technology is N-trig. N-trig’s DuoSense had been adopted in several notebook PCs, such as the HP’s touchsmart 12.1”. DuoSense also was adopted in the HTC’s flyer tablet.

The most successful (with the high volume sold) touch and pen device might be the Samsung’s Galaxy Note. It’s a hybrid of phone and tablet (some people call this phablet). The Galaxy Note’s touch is the combination of an on-cell projected capacitive AMOLED with a wacom digitizer pen beneath the OLED display. Samsung reported that the original Galaxy Note sold 10 million units in 10 months. The Galaxy Note II is even more popular, with 5 million units sold in 2 months.

Thanks for reading.

Jennifer and team

Touch Display Research Inc.