Industrial + Specialty Printing

A resistive touch screen panel made with Kodak transparent conductive film and featuring invisible conductive patterns will debut at the PE show in Santa Clara, CA.

The Conductive Polymers Division of Heraeus Precious Metals GmbH & Co. KG, and Eastman Kodak Company’s Industrial Materials Group jointly announced a milestone in the development of transparent conductive films that can be patterned to provide a cost-effective alternative to Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) films.
 

The companies announced they have demonstrated patterning Kodak HCF-225 Film/ESTAR™ Base using Heraeus technologies such as Clevio Etch and masking polymer Clevios SET G, or an equivalent set of photo-resist materials available from Orthogonal, Inc., to yield an invisible conductive patterns for a variety of touch screen applications.

Kodak and Heraeus also announced they commissioned GSI Technologies, LLC, to construct a resistive touch screen demonstrator that will be on display at the Heraeus show stand at the IDTechEX Printed Electronics USA 2011 Conference and Tradeshow, Nov. 30 – Dec. 1, 2011, at the Santa Clara, CA Convention Center (Heraeus Booth #H115). The 14” touch screen panel was fabricated using Kodak HCF-225 Film/ESTA Base and the Clevios PEDOT:PSS coating with a surface resistivity of 225 ohms/sq. It was built using conventional printing processes, including UV-cured and heat processed inks.
 

The polymer-based touch screen system provides touch performance, flexibility, stability, a high level of transparency, neutral color and low haze at an economic price as a working alternative to ITO.

Mark Juba,  Industrial Materials Group, Eastman Kodak Company, said “The combination of Kodak’s high quality conductive films and large scale coating process capabilities, combined with Heraeus Clevios PEDOT:PSS advanced formulations and patterning techniques, offers breakthrough capabilities for touch screen applications.”

In a NanoMarkets 2011 “Transparent Conductor Markets Report,” it is predicted that the overall market for touch screen-related technologies will reach $6.9 billion by 2016. The report said new technologies are expected to capture up to 20% of this market from ITO based systems.

“In the near future we will see touch screens in almost every electronic device,” said Stephan Kirchmeyer, Ph.D., head of the Functional Coatings Business Unit from the Heraeus Conductive Polymers Division.

“The market can now access a complete system that provides patterned transparent conductive films with enhanced performance at lower cost compared with current material sets and processes,” he said.