Advanced touch screen technology in one place

An exhibition was held where you could see cutting-edge touch screen related technologies and products in one place.

The touch screen technology exhibition 'Touch Panel Korea 2011' was held in Kintex, Ilsan, for a 3-day schedule from August 17th to 19th.

In this exhibition, with various domestic and foreign companies such as Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and China, various touch panel R & D and manufacturing technology equipment, parts, equipment, and materials such as touch panel inspection and cleaning equipment and ITO film coating equipment were introduced.

However, despite the fact that the touch panel was the main of the exhibition, it was a pity that the application of the application using the touch screen technology was poor. Because the exhibition consisted mainly of equipment and materials, those who went to the exhibition to develop a new business model using a touch screen often left the exhibition hall without achieving the results of the tour. However, it was meaningful in that it was an opportunity to look at the trend of the display market by confirming the advanced display products exhibited by some companies and the underlying technologies that will lead the future market.

'Touch Panel Korea 2011' Let's take a look at the facets of the companies we met.

 The trend is 'multi-touch'… Focus on related products

R & D Plus, a touch screen specialist, received a lot of attention from visitors by showing its 103-inch large display with multi-touch function. This product with IR type multi-touch sensor can recognize up to 6 points, so it can be used in multiple ways, such as operating the screen at the same time, or raising and turning the content.

As with smartphones, R & D Plus expects that multi-touch functionality will be an essential element of digital signage. This is because the difference between the existing digital signage of the one-point recognition type and the multi-touch product capable of multi-recognition is very large.

Mobile solution company Nuri Bom exhibited the optical touch sensor ‘T3000 series’. The T3000 series is an optical touch sensor that can make the main board LCD or PDP display device touchable by utilizing two camera modules. After installing the sensor and calibrating it to the screen size, you can make the entire screen or part of the screen available for touch.

By multi-touch gestures are directly recognized internally and the corresponding results are transmitted to a computer, multi-touch functions such as enlargement and reduction, and wheels can be applied to existing programs regardless of the computer OS.

According to the companies participating in the exhibition, in the case of a multi-touch sensor, the IR type and optical multi-touch sensor are functionally and economically advantageous as the size becomes larger than 40 inches.

This is because the pressure-sensitive sensor that senses pressure is inexpensive, but the accuracy of the touch is low, and the capacitive touch sensor used in smartphones is not yet easily grafted to large products.

Therefore, the company expects that IR and optical touch screens will dominate digital signage for the time being.

An official from R & D Plus said, “In the future, it is highly likely that the capacitive method will have excellent economics, but the most advantageous multi-touch technology at this stage is the IR method.” “We will conduct marketing in various markets such as advertising and education.”

Development of transparent electrode film to replace ITO

In the touch screen panel, a transparent electrode is an indispensable material. As a material for the transparent electrode, a rare metal called ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) is used. Most of the ITO used in Korea is imported from Japan at a high price or provides royalties and is manufactured by a small number of companies in Korea. Situation. In particular, difficulties in securing raw materials have been aggravated in recent years, as China, the main producer, has restricted exports. Accordingly, at this exhibition, the active movement of domestic companies to manufacture a new material transparent electrode that can replace ITO was also seen.

Inktech, an ink manufacturer, introduced 'Hybrid Transparent Electrode Film for Touch Panel' developed by the company. Inktech's transparent electrode film is manufactured using a roll-to-roll coating method using silver (Ag) wire as a material instead of ITO. The company said that this product has better performance than ITO and other existing materials, and the production cost is greatly reduced.

Inktech Lee Geun-ho said, “One day, it will be impossible for ITO thin film production due to depletion of indium.” “The transparent electrode film using silver has excellent electrical sensitivity and great environmental preservation effect.” Top Nanosys, a CNT film developer, also showed a transparent electrode film for a touch panel made of CNT (Carbon Nano tube), but CNT is currently the most discu