In the long-term brewing, the human-machine interface industry was officially kicked off by the official iPhone of Apple Computer. Everyone was surprised and repeated, and it could not be calmed for a long time. In the atmosphere of the blue sky as the curtain, the guidance of the dawn, and the loud forward music, the touch technology has caused widespread repercussions, which is indeed a rare phenomenon in the industry in recent years because:
This article refers to the address: http://
(1) The new product concept introduced by the new human-machine interface has activated vitality in a new and unconventional 3C product.
(2) Under the modular design concept, the fading system integrates the creative peripheral nerves to suddenly recover the perception, allowing the system designer to activate the creativity in the module combination experience.
(3) The introduction of new technologies will affect the re-combination of the entire upstream and downstream industrial chain, and they are considered to be indispensable.
(4) The application area is far from ever, NB, mobile phones, PDAs, handheld game consoles, MP3 music players, navigation systems, ATMs, etc. have been fully impacted.
At present, the published touch technologies include resistive, surface capacitive, infrared, projected capacitive, electromagnetic, optical imaging, embedded optical inspection and composite (referred to as electromagnetic and capacitive). Each faction has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each has its own application. Although the cost/performance is always the test standard, the appearance of the iPhone makes the touch panel change qualitatively, which makes the multi-finger touch form the mainstream specification, and stimulates the industry to rethink the use and application of the human-machine interface, and then squeeze various types. The layout of the touch technology.
First, the panel technical characteristics will affect its most suitable application
As far as touch technology is concerned, the so-called most suitable application basically has to be discussed from two angles: (1) application category; (2) use context.
As long as there is a screen as an output, basically the external touch panel can be used as an input, but from the application category, the touch panel can be basically divided into consumer electronics industry and medical electronic products, while the use situation is The main considerations are pen control, accusation, handwriting/writing, multi-finger, multi-person and environmental adaptability. With the help of the iPhone, the most suitable application is bound to produce structural changes.
As far as consumer electronics products are concerned, general handheld devices such as mobile phones, GPS, multimedia players, and digital cameras are all used in applications where the traditional resistance type is switched from a pen to a hand/pen and multi-finger. Foreseeing projected capacitive type will become the mainstream. Although the resistive type is currently dominated by its cost advantage (0.8-1/inch), the projected capacitive cost is estimated to be 20%-30% per year, estimated to be 20 years, and will approach the resistance price, which can be speculated to 2012. In the year, for the application of the 5 panel, the capacitor will almost replace the resistive type.
For medium-sized (5-10) consumer electronics such as navigators, in-vehicles, small notebooks, UMPCs, etc., the threshold for the control IC and panel bonding technology is smaller and the replacement speed is slower. It is estimated that it will be fully accessible in 2014. It is worth noting that since handwritten input of consumer electronics is an important usage scenario, a composite panel (pen writing/handwriting) will appear to create another wave of application requirements. In terms of small size, the resistive type will maintain its price advantage at least until 2010, but the superior use of the projected capacitive type will inevitably become the mainstream of the next wave of small-sized touch panels.
For industrial electronics, such as IPC, cash registers, ATMs, POS, medical instrument panels, Boao machines, electronic bulletin boards, and other consumer electronic products with different scenarios, the most suitable technology is also different. Mainly considering the panel size and use situation and environmental adaptability. For example, industrial computers need to solve the problem of gloves, and medical applications often require pen-controlled input, which is demanding and not suitable for resistance. Therefore, it can be inferred that the large-size touch panel will be an infrared-type ultrasonic type of the world, and the infrared type is slightly superior in the use situation of the multi-finger application.
As for the medium size (10-15), it belongs to the sputum area. The cost of infrared and ultrasonic type cannot compete with the resistance type, and the current projection capacitance still has no medium size (4.3) or more solution. Therefore, the medium size is still a resistive world in the short term, but the multi-finger use situation, the projected capacitive panel below 10.4, such as Taiwanese Sentelic has started development.
As for other touch panel technologies, such as electromagnetic (N-ting) surface capacitive type, embedded light detection type (AUO), optical imaging type (Microsoft), etc., most of them cannot be in the short term due to cost and yield or use situation. Forming a competitive advantage is not a long-term meal ticket. In short, the future:
(1) Large-size applications: mainly infrared, ultrasonic and resistive.
(2) Medium size (10-17): Resistive type is the mainstream.
(3) Small and medium size (below 10.4): Projected capacitive type will be the mainstream.
1[/!--empirenews.page--]
Second, the cost and use of the situation is the driving force for future technological development
Even in the cold winter, the sun will still rise from the east, and the development in the market is also that the two sides of the snoring can not hold back, the canoe has passed Wanzhongshan. Market orientation has always been driven by the cost and use context, and the use of context is simply a function. The emphasis on the touch panel is the interaction with the user, so the use of the situation is more appropriate. The use of the situation requires the stage set, props, lighting and other hardware facilities to interact with the entire performance software content. On the hardware: multi-finger touch (multi-finger detection), handwriting, pen writing, manual control, pen control, etc. will be the main trend, because the current panel technology can not support the above functions at the same time, so the new panel technology or composite Panels (such as resistive + capacitive, or resistive + capacitor, or electromagnetic + capacitive) will become the direction of research and development of various manufacturers, such as (United States) N-ting development of electromagnetic and capacitive combination, the United States WACOM The combination of electromagnetic and resistive is developed, and Taiwanese Shengda Technology focuses on the most cost-effective and use-case advantages of resistive and capacitive.
The most important core of the hardware is the bonding of the control IC and the ITO optical film. The pressing is the main obstacle. The ITO film is a resistive technology. It is estimated that it is difficult to convert to a capacitive structure. At present, manufacturers such as Nisha, Taiwanese Yanghua, Shiwei, and interfaces are active in controlling IC manufacturers, such as Taiwanese Newcomers, Taiwanese businessmen, and Elan Electronics. Active cooperation and complement each other. But the key is that the IC is in the use of the situation, there is currently no control IC on the market to support the final use situation. If there is no IC support, the software program cannot be fully supported. As mentioned above, the multi-finger touch, pen/handwriting and pen-hand double-fixing of small and medium size (below 10) are affecting the development of future applications and markets. At present, there are also many manufacturers actively investing in this field. The touch industry has been implemented for a long time, and it has been silent until the iPhone's multi-finger application is detonated. The flat-surface touch is thunderous, but the projected capacitive touch IC is quite high because of its threshold. If it is not quite research and development strength, it is difficult to complete. The main technical thresholds are: (1) handling of system noise; (2) overcoming of sweat, oil, paste, and dirt on the finger; (3) thickness of the Cover lens or the protective surface of the mechanism to reduce sensitivity; (4) human body Different physical constitutions cause system stability to decrease; (5) low resolution of the finger in small-size applications makes the cursor resolution difficult to improve, which makes Demo easy and mass production difficult. If there is no long-term experience accumulation, it is impossible to overcome the stability problem of mass production. . At present, the US business Xinsi and Taiwanese business Shengda have a long-term basis in this respect, and other manufacturers may have to go through a learning curve.
Third, the key to winning the patent layout
As for the patents on the structure of ITO optical films, the development of touch panels for more than a decade, the layout of various patents has made this industry mine full of various touch panels, of course, the original creators will have protection. There are more than 100 patents related to projected capacitive panels. The successor has almost no space to intervene. At present, the projected capacitive panel is mainly in the hands of Synaptics, Apple and Taiwan Shengda. For a simple example, the touchpad must click/double-click on the action (Xinsi, Shengda). If you want to detect the side with multiple fingers, it is also a patent (Shengda, Elan), if you want to slide on the board. (Shengda, Xinsi, Elan), after the multi-finger detection to do other page flipping action (Apple), those are patents. At present, there are not many and a large number of products invested in the projected capacitive type. It can be seen that in the near future, certain knives will shine.
Fourth, the integration of upstream and downstream industries
As the touch industry affects the entire industry chain, the integration of upstream and downstream industries will be an important observation indicator for future development. The biggest obstacle of the projected capacitor itself is the condition of system integration and application. After all, the panel must be installed on the screen. The noise and the noise generated by other circuits in the system can easily interfere with the touch, resulting in inaccurate positioning. Gesture applications may be feasible. If the application of handwriting and pointers and control ICs are key in the future, secondly, the thickening of the Cover lens due to the design of the system mechanism will in principle become more and more serious. In addition, whether the module factory needs to contain a customized Cover lens is also a major challenge in the industrial supply chain. Finally, when the panel is integrated into the LCD screen panel, it will also test the process capability, because the current panel bonding yield itself is only 80%-85%, and the other segment will inevitably make the yield lower. At present, the business model of upstream and downstream integration of the industry is also clear. In addition to the significant progress of the US businessmen Xinsi and Taiwanese business Shengda and Taiwanese business Yilong Electronics, others have not yet clearly defined specific plans.
V. Conclusion
As discussed above, the entire touch technology in the current industry chain can have the following conclusions:
(1) At present, the touch panel is still applied in a small size (especially multi-finger touch), and the projected capacitive panel potential will become the mainstream and gradually replace the resistive scheme.
(2) Demo is not equal to mass production. At present, it refers to the application solution. There are many demos but few mass producers, and there is still a considerable distance.
(3) Control the development energy of IC manufacturers themselves to determine the future/electronic/product usage scenarios.
(4) Select the panel technology is the most important amount of system manufacturers.
(5) The cooperation relationship with control IC manufacturers is critical to the survival of touch panel manufacturers.
(6) Although the difficulty is high, vertical integration is imperative.
Summarizing the touch panel technology, in terms of the technical cost and universal applicability of multi-finger touch, the current development of the projected capacitive type, but there are still many obstacles to overcome.
Transformer,Voltage Transformer,Current Transformer
First Electrical Group Co., Ltd. , http://www.cntransformersupplier.com