When consumers are no longer satisfied with the simple panel display function, more interesting and intuitive touch panel technology has become the focus of extremely popular discussions. Whether the terminal products have introduced touch technology from small to large sizes, the core technology is also With the development of more diversified solutions from the mainstream resistive touch technology, coupled with the topical products such as Windows 7 and iPhone, touch has become an obvious topic in the current IT and 3C industries.

The Windows 7 operating system, which is expected to be launched at the end of 2009, can be said to be an important fuze to ignite the mid- to large-size touch panel market in 2009 due to the new operating environment emphasizing the integrated touch experience, which was brought about by the iPhone, Android and WM phones The upsurge of small-sized touch panels has been spreading on both sides of large and small-sized touch panels. Touch panel technology and products have become a must for major manufacturers this year.

Touch screens are widely used in applications such as personal digital assistants, mobile phones, etc. The touch technology without display function will not be discussed here. The discussion will focus on the display panel integrated touch operation support related Product and technology trends.

Among the related terminal products launched by the current electronics industry, computer devices that can be operated by "touch" are becoming more and more diverse. For example, JVC hard disk cameras have introduced non-display touch technology, which was popular in 2009. Netbook, Nettop ... and other products echo this wave of touch craze, such as Acer, MSI, ASUS, etc., that is, the development of touch computers based on Netbook solutions.

Due to the vigorous development of the touch industry, in the first report of DisplaySearch for touch panels, the global touch panel shipments in 2007 alone reached 3.1 billion pieces, and in 2008 it had a shipment level of 3.5 billion pieces. With a difference of 1 year, shipments can increase by 400 million pieces. Observe that the shipment amount in 2007 was 1.2 billion US dollars, and the shipment amount in 2008 was as high as 2.3 billion US dollars. The comparison between the two is equivalent to an increase of more than 80%.

The size of the touch panel is critical

In the touch panel market, the larger the size, the more often the price will not increase proportionally, but depends on the implementation of the technical basis and related component costs, but the size is still an important measure to discuss this technology. Especially for different application environments and practical products, their panel requirements are different, and the precision requirements for their touch technology will also be different.

● Small size touch panel (under 4 inches)

Generally small size, generally refers to products under 4 inches, most commonly used in consumer electronic products such as digital cameras, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, PND ..., etc. The application products in this market are very wide, and the technology and maturity of products and components are high , Relative to the gross profit performance of the product is the lowest.

● Medium and small size touch panels (5-9 inches)

Most of the touch panel sizes in the 5-9 inch class are currently used in advanced products, such as higher-end PNDs, digital photo frames, ATMs, or outdoor KIOSK ... etc. Capacitive panels are mostly used for demand. Outdoor KIOSK devices with high durability requirements are mainly used, while consumer PNDs and digital photo frames are still dominated by low-cost resistive touch panel applications.

● Medium and large size touch panels (10-21 inches)

Refers to the 10-21 inch size panel. This part is mainly used in industrial computers and commercial touch screens. The main technology is capacitive touch, although there are also different touch design products such as acoustic wave induction and resistive touch. However, capacitive touch technology has application advantages such as scratch resistance, durability, and dirt resistance ... which is the reason why capacitive touch is still the main reason for the large and medium sizes.

● Large size touch panel (more than 22 inches)

It is a touch product of 22 inches or more. The introduction of large-size touch screen technology is more diverse, because the performance of resistive and capacitive types on large-size screens has its physical limitations, although large-scale technologies have been implemented in succession. , But the technology used in this market is relatively diverse. It is more commonly used in foreign countries for self-service systems, such as processing lottery (Lottery), Bingo (Bingo) single machine, or gaming machine (Gaming Machine) ... and other applications.

With the increase of the size of the touch panel, the system must be integrated with the built machine. If the inherent limitations of the touch technology (such as larger size and heavier weight) affect the integrated products, they are not system operators. The results that I am happy to see, therefore, the sonic and infrared touch control technologies that may increase the volume of the product, the market practical application is limited, but the resistive and capacitive touch are more easily favored by related companies.

Capacitive touch catches up

At present, the devices integrating touch technology are quite diverse, mainly including mobile phones, PNDs, game consoles, PMP ... and other multimedia or communication peripherals. At this stage, the application is still mainstream with small size, and large touch panels are relatively unpopular in market applications. . Especially for iPhone smartphones, an attractive control experience is the key to the touch technology product impulse, and large-sized products, such as Windows 7 and the SuRFace computer technology previously released by Microsoft, will also stimulate the increase in the size of the large and medium-sized touch application market. temperature.

The current market demand is dominated by the two major applications of resistive and capacitive touch. Due to the relatively mature development of resistive touch technology, the profit of relative products is also relatively low, and its multi-finger touch technology implementation has its own Restrictions, although some manufacturers have developed resistive touch technology comparable to capacitive multi-touch for the needs of multi-finger touch, the implementation complexity of the technology is relatively high, and the application market also needs some time to test.

Capacitive touch technology, caused by the massive use of the iPhone, has caused global attention and madness. The iPhone is the best promotional sample of capacitive touch technology. Its multi-finger touch and smooth operation experience have attracted many touch technology manufacturers. They have invested in budgets to develop similar multi-finger touch technology and key components.

Multiple touch technologies

The principle of resistive touch is that the upper / lower two sets of ITO conductive films are superimposed, the pressure causes the electrodes to appear conductive, and the voltage change is detected by the controller to calculate the contact position to complete the entire contact detection process. The key to use The material is a conductive film, and the transparency of the film will affect the display effect, but the advantage is that the technology is mature, there is no patent burden, and the cost is naturally greatly reduced.

Looking again at the current touch technology market, although resistive touch technology is the most widely used, the rest is the popular capacitive touch technology. In addition, infrared, ultrasound ... and other multi-technology practice models, but infrared and ultrasound technology are compared Suitable for large-screen applications, such as digital billboards or electronic whiteboards ... and other touch methods. There was also a slight mention of SuRFace technology, which uses a large rear projection screen to make an iPhone-like multi-finger touch effect. The touch area can be as large as a desktop, and the development of touch applications is more interesting.

What's more special is that touch technology is not as good as processors, memory, hard drives and other technologies. As long as the latest, fastest, largest ... and other product performances, they can achieve certain market recognition and market share. But touch technology is quite different, if the technology can not meet user habits, it will also affect the success or failure of the technology.

For example, iPhone touch technology, which is famous for multi-finger touch, may have its application value for mobile phones. However, if it is applied to products with a medium screen size in notebook computers, the functional requirements of multi-finger touch products may become relatively low, even The cost of parts in response to multi-fingerprint control will also affect the acceptance of products into the market.

Resistor and capacitor technology are not distinguished

In order to grab the big cake in the touch market, for touch panels, the resistive touch technology, which still accounts for the bulk of the market, does not dare to ignore it even if it has a home advantage. In the past, resistive touch technology had fatal limitations and shortcomings in many key performance points such as light transmittance, sensitivity, accuracy and service life. However, in order to continue to maintain market advantages, related companies have also developed non-PE films. The resistive touch module of the mode (glass) has greatly improved the original technical limitations in light transmittance, durability and accuracy due to small material improvements.

In addition, in the design requirements of multi-touch, some manufacturers have introduced a resistive touch structure, but at the same time can achieve multi-finger touch, identification of new technologies, has overturned "multi-finger touch" = "capacitive touch Technological advantages. In contrast, capacitive touch technology, because of the technical principles of electric field evaluation and detection of current touch coordinates, has caused the touch panel to be unable to effectively increase in manufacturing size, which relatively limits its market promotion. At present, the mainstream size of capacitive touch panels is still limited to 15 inches or less. However, with repeated technological improvements by the industry, the current cost size has reached about 32 inches. The related technology has already achieved mass production strength. The next step is how to effectively reduce manufacturing costs.

How to solve the patent curse, the key to capacitive touch market

At present, most of the patents related to capacitive touch technology are mastered by several major manufacturers, especially the quality of key touch ICs, which affects the performance of the actual touch experience. Because capacitive touch uses the ITO of the LCD panel to be coated with a transparent wire to form an electric field on the surface of the panel. When the user touches with a finger, the capacitance value changes. At this time, the touch IC converts the precise touch coordinates, and the entire process panel It may receive noise at the same time, and its motion sensing and calculation process is complicated. Among them, there are a lot of patented technical restrictions that prevent other manufacturers from easily entering the market. Manufacturers may also hinder the acquisition cost of touch ICs, which will increase product costs.

It is generally believed that capacitive touch technology is more difficult to break through the size limitation, and the size of the development may be smaller than that of resistive touch. In fact, capacitive touch is not impossible in larger-size panels, and its cost structure cannot Competing with the resistive touch panel technology of the same size has led to a lack of interest in mass production by relevant manufacturers.

Eliminate size restrictions, medium and large size applications are popular

Observed with the cost of a 15-inch touch screen, the use of capacitive touch technology will make the cost surge to 3 to 4 times that of resistive technology, but this situation has been improved by the efforts of various manufacturers. The original cost The gap is gradually narrowing, and the trial products whose size is limited in the laboratory can also reach a spectrum of nearly 40 inches.

However, the key to the implementation of capacitive touch technology is to sense the weak current changes caused by the user touching the screen. If the size of the developed panel continues to increase, the noise received by the touch sensing IC will increase sharply, and the large panel also has Come to the harsher noise suppression test of touch IC.

In addition, the current practice of capacitive touch panels is to apply transparent wire coating on ITO. The larger the panel, the greater the impedance. There is a considerable chance of uneven sensing trigger signals during sensing and the inability to clearly confirm the trigger status. The new method is to use array scanning to improve, divide the panel area into several square areas, and perform sensing and verification through the system in sequence. Due to the multi-task analysis, the performance limitations of a single sensing IC can be compensated for, through multi-party comparison , Analysis, can also systematically filter out background noise.

Large size, high profit, high difficulty

Although the market for touch screens is the largest in the small and medium-sized market, the gross profit is actually not high. For the relevant component manufacturers, their profitability is limited, but the relatively difficult medium and large size applications, the gross profit is Relatively many.

However, as the size of the touch panel increases, although it has the advantage of high gross profit, the technical bottleneck of developing large-scale touch technology is relatively complicated. For example, the larger the size of the touch screen, the more important issue is the linear accuracy of the panel. Since the purpose of "touch" is to replace the operation of the mouse, if the linear performance is inaccurate, frequent malfunctions will occur.

When the touch panel is larger, it also means that the circuit is relatively more and complicated. Apart from the increase in production cost, in the capacitive touch environment, there are still difficult problems such as stray capacitance and environmental interference ... Design complexity is also the key to developing large-size products.

The larger the size, in fact, the panel will also magnify the precision of the original product. Let's look at the design problems that the practice will face. When large-size panels are made, of course there will be problems with the weight of the product. As the panel increases, the weight of the product will increase. For a 30-inch touch panel, the weight of the finished product is up to 2 kg, which is much higher than the weight of a simple panel. How to design an exclusive handling jig? Or to prevent transportation collisions and pressures during the transportation process, all are important considerations.

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