Category Archives: Touch Technologies

While conventional thin film transistor liquid crystal (TFT LCD) displays are rapidly trending towards commoditization and currently suffering from declining prices and margins, China is quickly adding capacity in all flat-panel display (FPD) manufacturing segments. Supported by financial incentives from local governments, Chinese TFT capacity is projected to grow 40 percent per year between 2010 and 2018. In 2010 China accounted for just 4 percent of total TFT capacity. However by 2018, China is forecast to become the largest FPD-producing region in the world, accounting for 35 percent of the global market, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight.

While Chinese capacity expands, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have restricted investments to focus mainly on advanced technologies. TFT capacity for flat panel display (FPD) production in these countries is forecast to grow on average at less than 2 percent per year between 2010 and 2018.

Based on the latest IHS Display Supply Demand & Equipment Tracker, BOE Technology Group stands out as the leading producer of FPDs in China. With a capacity growth rate of 44 percent per year between 2010 and 2018, BOE will become the main driver for Chinese share gains. By 2018, the company will have ramped up more FPD capacity than any other producers, except for LG Display and Samsung Display.

“Despite growing concerns of oversupply for the next several years in most parts of the display industry, there is still little evidence that Chinese makers are reconsidering or scaling back their ambitious expansion plans,” said Charles Annis, senior director at IHS. “On the contrary, there continues to be a steady stream of announcements of new factory plans by various regional governments and panel makers.”

In China, the central government has generally encouraged investment in FPDs, in order to shift the economy to higher technology manufacturing, to increase domestic supply and to support gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Provincial governments have become the main enabler of capacity expansion through product and technology subsidies, joint ventures and other direct investments, by providing land and facilities and through tax incentives. In return, new FPD fabs increase tax revenue, support land value appreciation, increase employment and spur the local economy. The economic benefits generated from the feedback loop between local governments, panel makers and new FPD factories are still considered sufficiently positive in China to warrant application of significant public resources.

“China currently produces only about a third of the FPD panels it consumes. However, by rapidly expanding capacity, panel makers and government officials are expecting to double domestic production rates in the next few years and are also looking to export markets,” Annis said. “How excessive global supply, falling prices and lower profitability will affect these plans over time is not yet exactly clear. Even so, there is now so much new capacity in the pipeline that China will almost certainly become the top producer of FPDs by 2018.”

The IHS Display Supply Demand & Equipment Tracker covers metrics used to evaluate supply, demand, and capital spending for all major FPD technologies and applications.

Sapphire is hard, strong, optically transparent and chemically inert.

BY WINTHROP E. BAYLIES and CHRISTOPHER JL MOORE, BayTech-Resor LLC, Maynard, MA

Have you ever wondered what blue gemstone earrings, an LED lightbulb and an Apple Watch have in common? The answer (at least for this article) is that all depend on sapphire as part of their manufacturing process. In part 1 of the following two part article, we will discuss how sapphire is becoming an important part of the mobile device food chain. Part 2 will concentrate on how sapphire is used in LED production.

Sapphire (chemical composition Al2O3) has a high melting point of 2040°C (3704°F) and is chemically resistant even at high temperatures. It is an anisotropic material meaning that its mechanical/thermal properties depend on the direction of the crystal plane that is cut and polished. An insulator with a 9.2 eV energy gap it is optically transparent. With a hardness of 9 on the Mhos scale, it is almost as hard and strong as diamond (10 Mhos).

To summarize, sapphire has some good points: hard, strong, optically transparent and chemically inert (there is a reason high end watches use sapphire crystals) and some bad points: hard, strong, and chemically inert (which is why sapphire crystals are more expensive than glass). That is, the very properties that make it ideal for applications needing mechanical strength and hardness mean that it is a difficult material to grow, machine and polish.

There are several places where sapphire can be (or is now) used in the manufacture of mobile devices. The most publicity in this area was generated in 2014 with significant speculation in both the trade magazines and newspapers (such as the Wall Street Journal) that the iPhone 6 would be released with a sapphire touch screen or at the very least a sapphire cover glass over the existing touchscreen. Part of this speculation was fueled by the large number (1700 to 2500 depending on source) of sapphire producing furnaces being installed at an Apple facility in Mesa Arizona. However, the sapphire iPhone 6 was not released due in part to the difficulties in growing and processing enough sapphire screens at a reasonable cost to supply the significant number of phones produced. There are now sapphire touch screen phones available from other suppliers and recently, the Apple Watch was released with a sapphire screen. In addition, many fingerprint sensors and camera cover glasses are now produced using sapphire as the cover material.

Requirements for sapphire material is clear (forgive the pun). For screens and cameras, it must be of good optical quality i.e. transmit light well and have low surface roughness. For fingerprint sensors, it needs consistent surface quality and electrical properties.

Production process

FIGURE 1 shows a schematic of the production process for sapphire used in a mobile device screen. The following paragraphs provide more detail on this process [1] as well as a few of problems encountered along the way.

Sapphire Fig 1

The sapphire production process starts when a seed crystal and a mixture of aluminum oxide and crackle (un-crystallized sapphire material) is heated using a specific temperature/time profile, then cooled (this process can take two weeks depending on the amount of sapphire being produced) using a carefully controlled set of time/temperature profiles. When done correctly, the cookie sized seed grows and produces a single-crystal sapphire boule. That at least is the theory. In reality, two weeks is a long time and any number of problems can go wrong during this process including gas bubbles, mechanical faults such as cracks and contamination. Each of these problems can affect the sapphire and its optical/electrical properties. There is a clear correlation between the time taken to grow a boule and the potential quality of the boule produced. Many of the problems encountered in the upscaling of the sapphire production process sprang from trying to grow large boules at high speeds.

It is at the next step in the process where boule size does matter. Typically, the boule will be drilled or cut to produce material near the size needed for the particular application. It makes a significant difference if the material is for a watch crystal (say 1.5 inch diameter ~ 1.7 square inches). Here you can “core-drill” a boule to produce a number of smaller cylinders. For a phone screen/cover plate (at 4 by 6 inch i.e. 24 square inches) a larger portion of the boule is needed for a box shape. The ability to grow large sized boules on a regular basis is not in question; most important is how much of that boule is bubble-, crack- and impurity-free. In some cases the boules are inspected with various metrology techniques to determine which sections of the boule can be used and which cannot. The section of the boules not used is recycled into the original growth process (unless contaminated).

Given the hardness of the sapphire, diamond wire saws or diamond core drills are used for cutting or coring the boules. The yield from any boule is a function of the original boule size, the size of the cores or slabs being produced and the volume of the boule free from imperfections. As was discussed earlier, and is typical of many processes, the larger the size of the piece the lower the yield.

The next step is to take the cylindrical cores (or rectangular slabs) and cut them into appropriate sized pieces. The thickness of the desired part and the amount the producer is willing to invest in high technology solutions determines what is done next. On one end of the technology scale, the parts are cut using a wire saw or an abrasive cutoff saw. On the other end of the scale, you can ion implant the surface to produce a damaged layer at a depth below the surface determined by the original ion energy. If the slab is heated after sufficient implantation is done, a thin sheet will separate from the surface. Both processes result in parts of the approximate size needed for the application; a discussion of the pros and cons of each approach is beyond the scope of this article.

The process after this point depends on the parts’ final application and their manufacturer. Given the difficulty of polishing a material this hard many of the bigger companies have developed proprietary process for grinding or mechanically polishing the sapphire parts to the desired shape and surface roughness/finish. From a mechanical strength standpoint, it is important that there be no significant scratching of the surface or chipping of the edges which could severely limit the mechanical strength of the final piece. From an optical standpoint, it is important to produce a uniform finish so as not to effect the overall appearance of the part. At this stage, the parts are then ground to their final size and any additional shaping of the part including holes/ profiles is done. FIGURE 2 shows a variety of sapphire parts at this stage of the process.

Sapphire Fig 2

In most sapphire part production these parts are next coated with a variety of optical and/or electrical and/ or chemical films again depending on their application. Because of its high index of refraction (1.76) a sapphire screen or watch crystal is highly reflective. For this application, the parts are typically coated with a series of films to produce an anti-reflection coating enhancing final screen readability. For parts that will be touched on a regular basis such as touchscreens or fingerprint sensors coatings, it is important that they be “self-cleaning.” In these cases, hydrophobic and oleophobic coatings are used to make sure your fingerprints are less likely to stay behind after the material has been touched. FIGURE 3 shows a series of parts after the coating and silk screening process. They are now ready for assembly into the mobile device.

Sapphire Fig 3

The use of sapphire in mobile devices is driven by two main concerns. One is that the final screen/sensor be mechanically stronger and harder than most glasses. There are a number of videos [2] available showing cement blocks being dragged over cell phones to show the sapphire screens’ scratchproof capabilities. The second (and not as well known) factor is the significant data showing that touch sensors made using sapphire have better performance characteristics due to its superior electrical properties and electrical uniformity. This allows the development of sensors which have improved performance in the field.

The downside of using sapphire remains its cost. Estimates [3] have reported sapphire costs 2 to 10 times the price of an equivalent glass part. Although these costs are coming down, in price sensitive applications glass continues to dominate at this time and it is expected that only higher end phones will use sapphire screens.

In the second part of this article, we will discuss the importance of sapphire in the LED industry and the difference in process needed for this material.

Additional reading/viewing material

1. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-sapphire- glass-screens-are-made-2014-9
2. Video Aero Gear’s Flight Glass SX Sapphire Crystal vs a Concrete
3. http://seekingalpha.com/article/2230553-ignore- the-sapphire-threat-corning-is-on-a-roll

By Tom Abate, Stanford Engineering

Stanford chemical engineering Professor Zhenan Bao and her team have created a skin-like material that can tell the difference between a soft touch and a firm handshake. The device on the "golden fingertip" is the skin-like sensor developed by Stanford engineers.

Stanford chemical engineering Professor Zhenan Bao and her team have created a skin-like material that can tell the difference between a soft touch and a firm handshake. The device on the “golden fingertip” is the skin-like sensor developed by Stanford engineers. (Photo: Bao Lab, Stanford)

Stanford engineers have created a plastic “skin” that can detect how hard it is being pressed and generate an electric signal to deliver this sensory input directly to a living brain cell.

Zhenan Bao, a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford, has spent a decade trying to develop a material that mimics skin’s ability to flex and heal, while also serving as the sensor net that sends touch, temperature and pain signals to the brain. Ultimately she wants to create a flexible electronic fabric embedded with sensors that could cover a prosthetic limb and replicate some of skin’s sensory functions.

Bao’s work, reported today in Science, takes another step toward her goal by replicating one aspect of touch, the sensory mechanism that enables us to distinguish the pressure difference between a limp handshake and a firm grip.

“This is the first time a flexible, skin-like material has been able to detect pressure and also transmit a signal to a component of the nervous system,” said Bao, who led the 17-person research team responsible for the achievement.

Benjamin Tee, a recent doctoral graduate in electrical engineering; Alex Chortos, a doctoral candidate in materials science and engineering; and Andre Berndt, a postdoctoral scholar in bioengineering, were the lead authors on the Science paper.

Digitizing Touch

Stanford sensor closeup

A closeup of the sensor. (Photo: Bao Lab, Stanford)

The heart of the technique is a two-ply plastic construct: the top layer creates a sensing mechanism and the bottom layer acts as the circuit to transport electrical signals and translate them into biochemical stimuli compatible with nerve cells. The top layer in the new work featured a sensor that can detect pressure over the same range as human skin, from a light finger tap to a firm handshake.

Five years ago, Bao’s team members first described how to use plastics and rubbers as pressure sensors by measuring the natural springiness of their molecular structures. They then increased this natural pressure sensitivity by indenting a waffle pattern into the thin plastic, which further compresses the plastic’s molecular springs.

To exploit this pressure-sensing capability electronically, the team scattered billions of carbon nanotubes through the waffled plastic. Putting pressure on the plastic squeezes the nanotubes closer together and enables them to conduct electricity.

This allowed the plastic sensor to mimic human skin, which transmits pressure information to the brain as short pulses of electricity, similar to Morse code. Increasing pressure on the waffled nanotubes squeezes them even closer together, allowing more electricity to flow through the sensor, and those varied impulses are sent as short pulses to the sensing mechanism. Remove pressure, and the flow of pulses relaxes, indicating light touch. Remove all pressure and the pulses cease entirely.

The team then hooked this pressure-sensing mechanism to the second ply of their artificial skin, a flexible electronic circuit that could carry pulses of electricity to nerve cells.

Importing the Signal

Bao’s team has been developing flexible electronics that can bend without breaking. For this project, team members worked with researchers from PARC, a Xerox company, which has a technology that uses an inkjet printer to deposit flexible circuits onto plastic. Covering a large surface is important to making artificial skin practical, and the PARC collaboration offered that prospect.

Finally the team had to prove that the electronic signal could be recognized by a biological neuron. It did this by adapting a technique developed by Karl Deisseroth, a fellow professor of bioengineering at Stanford who pioneered a field that combines genetics and optics, called optogenetics. Researchers bioengineer cells to make them sensitive to specific frequencies of light, then use light pulses to switch cells, or the processes being carried on inside them, on and off.

For this experiment the team members engineered a line of neurons to simulate a portion of the human nervous system. They translated the electronic pressure signals from the artificial skin into light pulses, which activated the neurons, proving that the artificial skin could generate a sensory output compatible with nerve cells.

Optogenetics was only used as an experimental proof of concept, Bao said, and other methods of stimulating nerves are likely to be used in real prosthetic devices. Bao’s team has already worked with Bianxiao Cui, an associate professor of chemistry at Stanford, to show that direct stimulation of neurons with electrical pulses is possible.

Bao’s team envisions developing different sensors to replicate, for instance, the ability to distinguish corduroy versus silk, or a cold glass of water from a hot cup of coffee. This will take time. There are six types of biological sensing mechanisms in the human hand, and the experiment described in Science reports success in just one of them.

But the current two-ply approach means the team can add sensations as it develops new mechanisms. And the inkjet printing fabrication process suggests how a network of sensors could be deposited over a flexible layer and folded over a prosthetic hand.

“We have a lot of work to take this from experimental to practical applications,” Bao said. “But after spending many years in this work, I now see a clear path where we can take our artificial skin.”

Today’s device manufacturers must piece together disparate, component-level software to create sensor-based wearable devices–often at the expense of accuracy and power consumption. Manufacturers of wearable devices are looking for cost-effective, turnkey solutions that function as a system to provide faster time to market, increased functionality, superior performance, and supply-chain flexibility. In response, Hillcrest Labs today unveiled its MotionEngine (TM) Wear software with always-on, sensor-enabled features optimized for the latest generation of wearable devices.

According to industry research firm IDC, the worldwide wearables market will reach a total of 76.1 million units in 2015, up 163.6% from 2014, and 173.4 million units by 2019, resulting in a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9%. Hillcrest’s MotionEngine Wear offers device makers the ability to quickly create differentiated wearable products across the health, fitness, and lifestyle segments of this growing market. MotionEngine Wear is designed for smartwatches, activity and fitness bands, health and sleep monitors, and smart clothing. The small software footprint and low power profile make it a match for devices targeted to the mass market, active or sports segment, commercial and industrial markets, or for fashion accessories.

“Sensors play a key role in wearable devices but how these sensors are used to deliver a compelling and convenient user experience is even more critical to the success of a wearable product today,” said Chad Lucien, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Hillcrest Labs. “We are proud to offer our MotionEngine Wear software to manage and enhance the performance of sensors found in wearable devices–enabling high performance, low power motion-based applications, and providing the foundation for new user experiences.”

MotionEngine Wear provides high quality context awareness; tracks users’ daily activities such as walking, running, and sleeping; and simplifies the user experience with intuitive gesture controls. Unique power reduction algorithms provide always-on sensing without compromising the accuracy, reliability, or functionality of a wearable device. MotionEngine Wear is compatible with today’s widely used system architectures, including ARM Cortex-M, Cadence Tensilica Fusion DSP, and Synopsys ARC EM. It is OS independent, so it can be deployed when using platforms with Android, Android Wear, Tizen, WebOS, and RTOS, or others. Furthermore, it supports sensors from the leading suppliers to ensure lower costs, flexible implementations, and faster time to market.

Lucien continued: “With MotionEngine Wear, manufacturers are not locked into any one component supplier or system architecture. MotionEngine Wear therefore provides manufacturers with a highly flexible solution that enables faster time to market, product line diversity and lower costs.”

“Wearable devices are rapidly becoming more sophisticated, moving beyond simple health and fitness tracking devices to support a myriad of advanced features, from sleep monitoring to gesture recognition,” said Ramon Llamas, Research Manager with IDC’s Wearables Program. “For the next generation of wearable devices, manufacturers need simple, cost-effective solutions to meet consumers’ expectations for a consistent and accurate user experience. Solutions like Hillcrest’s MotionEngine Wear, that are compatible with a variety of low power MCUs and support sensors from leading suppliers, offer manufacturers maximum flexibility to innovate as new technologies are introduced in the wearables market.

There are many uses and applications for wearable devices, including Health and Fitness, Lifestyle, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and Motion Capture. These categories of devices each have distinct feature requirements but share in the need to maintain low costs, minimize power consumption, and extract maximum performance out of the available sensors. Hillcrest has developed a portfolio of products to address these needs. MotionEngine Wear offers the foundation for a variety of wearable device applications, including:

  • Accurate Activity Tracking: Algorithms specifically tuned for wearable devices can automatically track a variety of users’ daily physical activities, such as walking and running steps taken and stairs climbed, to provide an assessment of exercise program effectiveness.
  • Advanced Sleep Monitoring: The proprietary sleep-state algorithm uses a low power method to capture motion data related to users’ sleep quality and present results.
  • Context Awareness: Automatic detection of when the user is in a vehicle, such as a car, or if the user is riding a bicycle to allow the user interface to adapt to different modes of use.
  • Precise Compass Heading and Orientation: Hillcrest’s calibration and sensor fusion algorithms ensure precise, drift- and jitter-free device orientation and compass heading to provide the foundation for navigation applications.
  • Intuitive Gesture Controls: Users can perform motion gestures to interact naturally with devices, such as the “glance” gesture, which is used to detect when a user looks at the front-facing screen.

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), a global semiconductor foundry, today announced that it has entered high volume production for touch IC applications manufactured on UMC’s 0.11um eFlash process. The specialized technology, first introduced by UMC in late 2012 as the foundry industry’s first, true 12-volt aluminum back-end-of-line (BEoL) process, is developed for next generation touch controller IC and IoT applications. Compared to 0.18um, 0.11um provides smaller and faster logic devices for higher performance, while enabling the integration of higher density embedded Flash and SRAM for use in microcontrollers for touch-screen products of all sizes.

Kurt Huang, senior director of corporate marketing at UMC, said, “Touch panels have become the predominant interface used for today’s electronics. A key advantage of UMC’s touch platform solution is that we provide the 0.11um eFlash with proprietary flash macro design services to IC designers. We also offer the best cost vs. performance by incorporating an aluminum BEoL process to serve the highly competitive touch IC market. In addition, just like our 0.18um eFlash, support for true 12-volt power meets the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirements needed for today’s larger touch screens and ‘hovering’ applications used during web navigation on touch surfaces.”

UMC’s 0.11um touch IC platform delivers more than three times the SNR improvement over today’s widely used 3.3V solution, allowing IC designers to create a new generation of enhanced touch interface products. The foundry has extensive experience manufacturing touch controller ICs, with more than 30 touch customers in production at the foundry and over 40 million touch ICs shipped per month. The 0.11um process is developed on 8-inch manufacturing using the most aggressive aluminum BEoL technology, allowing touch IC designers to enjoy lower NRE and related costs to increase market competitiveness. UMC also provides in-house flash IP to speed time-to-market and facilitate customization to address evolving market trends. An ultra-low leakage (uLL) process is currently being developed to further reduce core current on devices and SRAM by up to four times.

London, UK and San Jose, California – Dialog Semiconductor and Atmel Corporation announced today that Dialog has agreed to acquire Atmel in a cash and stock transaction for total consideration of approximately $4.6 billion. The acquisition creates a global leader in both Power Management (defined as power management solutions for mobile platforms including smartphones, tablets, portable PCs and wearable-type devices) and Embedded Processing solutions. The transaction results in a company that supports Mobile Power, IoT and Automotive customers. The combined company will address a market opportunity of approximately $20 billion by 2019.

Dialog will complement its position in Power Management ICs with a portfolio of proprietary and ARM (R) based Microcontrollers in addition to high performance ICs for Connectivity, Touch and Security. Dialog will also leverage Atmel’s established sales channels to diversify its customer base. Through realized synergies, the combination could deliver an improved operating model and enable new revenue growth opportunities.

“The rationale for the transaction we are proposing today is clear – and the potential this combination holds is exciting. By bringing together our technologies, world-class talent and broad distribution channels we will create a new, powerful force in the semiconductor space. Our new, enlarged company will be a diversified, high-growth market leader in Mobile Power, IoT and Automotive. We firmly believe that by combining Power Management, Microcontrollers, Connectivity and Security technologies, we will create a strong platform for innovation and growth in the large and attractive market segments we serve. This is an important and proud milestone in the evolution of our Dialog story,” said Jalal Bagherli, Dialog Chief Executive Officer.

“This transaction combines two successful companies and will create significant value for Atmel and Dialog shareholders, customers and employees. Adding Dialog’s world-class capabilities in Power Management with Atmel’s keen focus on Microcontrollers, Connectivity and Security will enable Dialog to more effectively target high-growth applications within the Mobile, IoT and Automotive markets,” said Steven Laub, Atmel President and Chief Executive Officer.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of the 2016 calendar year. In 2017, the first full year following closing, the transaction is expected to be accretive to Dialog’s underlying earnings. Dialog anticipates achieving projected annual cost savings of $150 million within two years. The purchase price implies a total equity value for Atmel of approximately $4.6 billion and a total enterprise value of approximately $4.4 billion after deduction of Atmel’s net cash. Dialog expects to continue to have a strong cash flow generation profile and have the ability to substantially pay down the transaction debt approximately three years after closing.

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is subject to regulatory approvals in various jurisdictions and customary closing conditions, as well as the approval of Dialog and Atmel shareholders. Jalal Bagherli will continue to be the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Board Director of Dialog. Two members of Atmel’s existing Board will join Dialog’s Board following closing. The transaction is not subject to a financing condition.

Electronic materials play a key role in touch panel technologies, such as new flexible touch technologies. Equally application know-how plays a vital part in the success of the new material to be used in device manufacture.

Together with ITRI, Taiwan, Heraeus, demonstrated the integration of Clevios conductive polymer based touch panel with AM OLED technology in a highly flexible device. The device was prepared using Clevios PEDOT conductive polymer material (formulated by EOC, Taiwan) patterned on ITRI’s FlexUp substrate. Solution processable and printable Clevios PEDOT: PSS is used as the transparent electrode in this device. In the project a 7 inch flexible Touch Panel / AM OLED device was produced.

Heraeus has been collaborating with ITRI since 2013.

“In this latest development project with ITRI, we have produced a reliable, flexible, advanced touch panel and integrated it with an AM OLED display, opening up new possibilities in flexible, foldable and wearable technologies” said Dr. Stephan Kirchmeyer, Global Marketing Director for the Display & Semiconductor Business at Heraeus. Dr. Janglin Chen, Vice President and General Director of ITRI’s Display Technology Center added, “The co-operation with Heraeus has shown the options for touch panel makers are broader than just metallic based ITO-alternatives.”

Further projects with the ITRI Group and Heraeus in the application of displays are ongoing. The touch sensor electrodes are based on a Clevios PEDOT. The experts at ITRI subsequently patterned the film using Heraeus invisible etch technology. A key element is flexibility which was tested 10,000 times at a bending radius of 5mm. The touch panel is laminated on the AM OLED display. The final product has 5 interactive functions within the display including touch controllable zoom in/out and rotation functions.

The Clevios PEDOT:PSS range from the Display & Semiconductor Business Unit of Heraeus consists of materials for antistatic through to highly conductive applications. Materials are modified for their application method, usually printing or coating, and for their end application requirements. Typically Clevios coatings can reach 100 -250 Ohm/sq. at a transparency of 90 percent (excluding substrate film). Clevios is increasingly finding applications in touch panels and sensors, as well as OLEDs, organic solar cells and security coatings.

Cima NanoTech, a developer and manufacturer of transparent conductive film solutions, announced today that it has entered into a joint venture with Foxconn, the world’s largest ICT technology provider and vertically integrated device manufacturer, to deliver the industry’s first cost-competitive, projected capacitive (pro-cap) solution for large format touch screens. Both companies will sell SANTE ProTouch modules through Cima Touch, the company formed under this joint venture.

Foxconn’s expertise in the mass production of reliable, high-quality products, coupled with Cima NanoTech’s proprietary SANTE self-assembling nanoparticle technology, delivers a cost-competitive solution for customers looking to shift from infrared (IR) touch technology to pro-cap multi-touch solutions and systems.

“SANTE ProTouch modules will be manufactured at our newly established manufacturing facilities,” said Jon Brodd, CEO of Cima NanoTech. “Having a full, in-house supply chain for large format projected capacitive touch solutions is an industry first, and ensures that we have full control over the quality and reliability of SANTE ProTouch modules.”

SANTE ProTouch modules provide users with ultra fast response for an intuitive multi-user, multi-touch experience, making it an ideal solution for interactive digital signage, interactive kiosks, interactive tabletops and interactive whiteboards. The overall design and product appeal of the touch system is also enhanced with edge-to-edge cover lens and narrow bezel.

“Cima NanoTech has a cutting-edge, disruptive technology which puts them at the forefront of high performance innovations.” said Kevin Chen, Director of Foxconn Technology Group. “Our partnership with Cima NanoTech enables us to break new ground and address the rapidly growing large format touch market.”

SANTE ProTouch modules are available in sizes ranging from 40” to 85”. The non-moiré characteristic of SANTE self-assembling nanoparticle technology makes it compatible with all LCD display models in the market; the highly customizable nature of SANTE ProTouch modules also provides manufacturers and system integrators with the freedom to design features such as cover lens thickness, glass type and bezel width.

Global consumers have lately become less interested in acquiring conventional notebooks with 15-inch displays, and they are instead shifting their spending to smaller product segments. In the first half of 2015, panel shipments in the 15-inch range (i.e., 15.0 inches to 15.9 inches) dropped 14 percent year over year, from 44.5 million to 38.4 million units, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight. At the same time, driven by the popularity of Chromebook, notebook display shipments in the 11-inch range have grown from 8 million units to 11 million units.

Notebook_Displays_Chart

“Thanks to affordable prices, and a completed ecosystem with a host of hardware and app choices and a user-friendly cloud environment, Chromebook has expanded its customer base from small and medium-sized businesses and the education market to general users,” said Jason Hsu, supply chain senior analyst for IHS Technology. “The Chromebook sales region has also expanded from the United States to emerging countries, where more local brands are launching Chromebook product offerings. There are also more products set to debut in the 12-inch range, thanks to the success of the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and rumors of Apple’s upcoming 12.9-inch tablets.”

According to the most recent IHS Notebook and Tablet Display Supply Chain Tracker, total notebook panel shipments to Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard fell 27 percent month over month from 6.4 million units in May to 4.7 million units in June, while overall set production increased by 13 percent from 5.4 million units to 6.1 million units. These two leading notebook PC brands have recently taken steps to regulate panel inventory, in order to guard against excess product pre-stocking.

“The currency depreciation in Euro zone and emerging counties earlier this year jeopardized consumer confidence and slowed the purchase of consumer electronics, including notebooks,” Hsu said. “Moreover, in April, Microsoft leaked the announcement of its new Windows 10 operating system. Despite Microsoft’s claims that a free upgrade to the new operating system would be available to Windows 8 users, many consumers still deferred purchases, which increased the brands’ set inventory. Notebook manufacturers could decide to lower set production in the third quarter, after the end market becomes sluggish in May and June.”

With notebook panel prices remaining very low, profitability has become an issue, and many panel makers are facing pressure to maintain fab loading and gain market share. “Panel cost structure has become crucial in the struggle to stay competitive,” Hsu said. “Continuous panel over-supply not only hurts profitability, but could also confuse the real panel market demand in the fourth quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016. It’s time for panel makers to revise their production numbers, and curb capacity utilization, to keep pace with actual market demand.”

While overall smartphone market growth continues to slow, global demand for low temperature polysilicon thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal displays (LTPS TFT LCD) for smartphones is on the rise. Led by Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, LTPS TFT LCD smartphone display shipments grew 31 percent in the first half (H1) of 2015 to reach 251 million units. The iPhone displays made up more than half (52 percent) of all LTPS TFT LCD smartphone display shipments in H1 2015, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), a global source of critical information and insight.

LTPS TFT LCD is used in Apple’s iPhone and other high-end smartphones that have full high definition (FHD) displays with resolutions of 1920×1080 pixels and in wide quad high definition (WQHD) displays with resolutions of 2560×1440 pixels. Display manufacturers are now investing in new fabs to increase future production capacity, not only for LTPS TFT LCD displays, but also for high-resolution active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) displays, according to the IHS Smartphone Display Market Tracker.

“Apple adopted wider displays with higher resolution in its latest iPhone series, which has helped spur demand in LTPS TFT LCD displays,” said Hiroshi Hayase, director of analysis and research for IHS Technology. “Due to strong growth in LTPS TFT LCD for the iPhone, Apple competitors are also now increasing orders of high-resolution displays.”

apple smartphone display