Smartphone firm adopts nanomaterial touchscreens

Dan Rogers - 21 Jul 2011

Exclusive article from the latest issue of +Plastic Electronics: to read in full click here.

One of the top six manufacturers of smartphones worldwide has adopted a nanomaterial touchscreen from US firm Cambrios, signalling the success of disruptive, next-generation technologies in the touchscreens markets.

The consumer electronics market is one of the most promising long-term goals for plastic electronics innovations. Numerous developers of printed and organic electronics consider disrupting the conventional components and processes for mobile phones, computer games and televisions as highly lucrative.

The oft-quoted figures for the plastic electronics industry, reaching billions of euros over the next decade, assume that these technologies will succeed in replacing parts of the conventional consumer electronics industry - as OLED displays have already started to do in smartphones, for instance.

The announcement in April 2011 that Cambrios, a provider of nanomaterial film and nanoink, is supplying its technology for use in a smartphone touchscreen now in production, suggests that the mainstream consumer electronics market is set to be further disrupted by printed electronics.

'This is a big moment for us,' remarks Mike Knapp, president and CEO of Cambrios. 'It shows manufacturability, quality and will increase the pace of further commercialisation dramatically.'

Mainstream

Japanese partner Nissha Printing produced the touch sensor using ClearOhm, and US partner Synaptics created the touch module, which was then delivered to the smartphone manufacturer.

'This is one of the five or six major mobile phone companies in the world,' says Bob Mackey, senior scientist at Synaptics, underlining the importance of the application of ClearOhm.

Having proven its performance in a high-volume commercial application in a mainstream market, it is likely that
ClearOhm will become further embedded in the consumer electronics supply chain in the coming years.

'We have a lot of commercial engagements ongoing - Cambrios is pretty confident that some of these are destined to reach the market later this year,' Knapp predicts.

Want to read more?
This article appears in full in Volume 3, issue 6 of +Plastic Electronics magazine, including exclusive interviews with nanomaterial touchscreen developers Cambrios, Synaptics and Toray Advanced Films.
To subscribe to +Plastic Electronics and get immediate access to this article, as well as online access to archive articles and a postal copy of the next six issues, visit our subscriptions page.