This report on touch screen market covers 100+ Companies and provides 22 Tables and 45 Figures in the 174 pages that analyze and cover the technical, market and application trends for touch screens including the activities of panel and component manufacturers of touch screens. Also covered are mainstream touch technologies and biggest emerging touch technologies, how they work and what the primary use markets are.

 

The market for touch screens is already large because touch screens have been around for quite a while in ATMs, point-of-sales terminals and Kiosks for example, all rather specialised touch applications. Only a few years ago the true mass consumer market use of touch screens was conditioned by Apple's adoption of projected capacitive touch screen technology for the iPhone in 2007. After this other global players, such as Samsung and LG Electronics, also started to use touch technology for their wide range of products. And today, touch screen interfaces are becoming increasingly common in mobile consumer devices.

Leading the touch screen technology market are high-end mobile consumer-electronic devices, such as smart phones and tablets. Here, the two main technologies used are analog resistive and projected capacitive.

 

The next big markets for touch screens are ebooks, (mobile) game consoles, car displays and navigation devices as well as digital cameras for small to medium size displays. Bigger touchscreens over 10-inch can be more and more found in laptops and PC monitors as well as other screens and TVs.

 

Along with the current leading technology, capacitive touch, the industry has a dozen other ways of building a touch screen sensor, but not all of them are suitable for devices for the professional high performance and clarity market. Every single one of the roughly 15 different touch technologies has its own strengths and weaknesses and is therefore used in very different applications.

 

From all technologies projected capacitive is growing fastest, but other technologies are gaining momentum as well, such as embedded LCD in-cell and on-cell touch and optical touch technology, which are not mainstream technologies today, but will become more and more important in the next decade.

 

Apart from adding touch functionality to more and more commercial consumer devices, the next big topic and also opportunity will be the replacement of ITO, esp. in the two main technologies projected capacitive and resistive.

 

Today, half of the costs of projected capacitive touch screen modules come from the indium tin oxide (ITO) sensor. The replacement of this widely used ITO sensor electrode material will not only change the game entirely in terms of costs, but also open the gate to bendable, rollable and stretchable electronics with touch functionality.

Along with the leading technology, projected capacitive touch, the industry has a dozen other ways of building a touch screen, but not all of them are suitable for the rapidly growing consumer electronics market that needs high performance and high clarity. Every single one of the 15 different touch technologies has its own strengths and weaknesses and is therefore used in very different applications. Hence, there will not be just one technology in the next decade, but a few that clearly lead the market. Even more so, since touch interfaces are added to more and more existing and new applications with display sizes ranging from only a few inches to over 150 inches. The next game changer will be alternatives for indium tin oxide (ITO) widely used as touch screen sensor material, which is comparably expensive due to the high price of the rare raw material indium. This will not only change the cost structure, but also open the gate to bendable, rollable and stretchable electronics with touch functionality.

The report provides 10 year forecasts for the touch screen market by applications and by technology, giving you an overview of the primary use markets, applicability of the different technologies and application trends. In addition to this, there are chapters on key mainstream and emerging technologies and their future trends all pulled together with summary charts, graphs and profiles of latest company activity.

Touch screen interfaces are becoming increasingly common in mobile consumer devices, such as mobile phones, tablets and e-books. IDTechEx forecasts revenue of the touch screen market to be US$14bn in 2012 and to triple in the next decade. The report provides a 10-year forecasts for the touch screen market by applications and by technology, explaining the primary use markets for each technology.

Those developing or making touch screens and transparent conductive films (TCF) of all types. Other interested parties such as chemical companies, equipment manufacturers, technology researchers, investors and supports of the industry.

1.1. Overall Market Size in 2022 

1.2. Main Touch Technologies 

1.3. Leading Market Applications 

1.4. The Big Opportunity for TCFs 

1.5. ITO Alternatives 

1.6. Over 100 Profiled Organizations 

3.1. Mainstream Touch Technologies 

3.1.1. Projected Capacitive 

3.1.2. Analog Resistive 

3.1.3. Surface capacitive 

3.1.4. Infrared 

3.1.5. Surface Acoustic Wave 

3.2. Emerging Touch Technologies 

3.2.1. Embedded 

3.2.2. Optical Imaging 

3.3. Other Touch Technologies 

3.4. Comparison 

4.1. Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) 

4.1.1. ITO Challenges: Cost and availability 

4.2. ITO Alternatives 

4.2.1. Organic conductors 

4.2.2. Carbon Nanotubes 

4.2.3. Nano-metal 

4.2.4. Graphene 

4.2.5. Quantum Tunneling Composite (QTC™) 

5.1. Overview 

5.2. TCOs 

5.2.1. Vacuum processes 

5.2.2. Wet processes 

5.2.3. Patterning of TCO layers 

5.2.4. Recent developments: Printable ITO 

5.3. Deposition of Organic Materials 

5.4. Nanomaterials 

5.4.1. Nanoparticles 

5.5. New processes 

6.1. Advanced Touchscreen Technology (ATT) by Wintek 

6.2. Alps Electric 

6.3. Altera 

6.4. Analog Devices (ADI) 

6.5. Apple 

6.6. Applied Materials 

6.7. Arayon Optics 

6.8. Artificial Muscle Inc. (AMI) 

6.9. Atmel 

6.10. Avago 

6.11. Broadcom 

6.12. Caledon Controls 

6.13. CAM Graphics 

6.14. Cambrios 

6.15. Cando (AUO) 

6.16. Carestream Advanced Materials 

6.17. Chimei Innolux Corp. (CMO?) 

6.18. Cirque 

6.19. CPT 

6.20. Cypress 

6.21. DanoTech 

6.22. DGTUS Tech 

6.23. DigiTech 

6.24. DMC 

6.25. Duke University 

6.26. Eastman Kodak Co. 

6.27. EELY 

6.28. EETI (eGalax) 

6.29. EFUN 

6.30. Elan Micorelectronics 

6.31. Emerging Display Technology (EDT) 

6.32. ESTECOM 

6.33. eTurboTouch 

6.34. FlatFrog 

6.35. Focaltech Systems 

6.36. Fujitsu 

6.37. General Touch 

6.38. GDS 

6.39. GestureTek 

6.40. Gunze 

6.41. HannStar Display 

6.42. Hanwang (Hanvon) 

6.43. Heraeus Clevios (formerly H.C. Starck Clevios) 

6.44. Higgstec 

6.45. Hon Hai Precision Industry 

6.46. Host Optical 

6.47. Immersion (IMS) 

6.48. Innolux 

6.49. isiQiri Interface Technologies 

6.50. JTouch 

6.51. Keytec 

6.52. LG Display 

6.53. Melfas 

6.54. Microchip Technology 

6.55. Microsoft 

6.56. Mirle Automation 

6.57. Nanjing Wally 

6.58. NanoForge 

6.59. NEC Display Solutions 

6.60. NextWindow 

6.61. Nissha Printing 

6.62. N-trig 

6.63. NVIDIA 

6.64. Ocular LCD 

6.65. Oike & CO., Ltd. 

6.66. Omek 

6.67. Optera 

6.68. Osram Opto Semiconductors 

6.69. Panasonic Electric Devices (PED) 

6.70. Pan Jit (Mildex) 

6.71. Peratech 

6.72. Perceptive Pixel 

6.73. Pixcir Microelectronics 

6.74. Planar 

6.75. PolyIC 

6.76. PRO 

6.77. Quanta 

6.78. RISIN Technology 

6.79. Samsung Electronics 

6.80. SAIT 

6.81. Sang Bo Corporation (SBK), Korea 

6.82. Seiko Epson 

6.83. Sharp 

6.84. Silicon Integrated Systems (SIS) 

6.85. Sintek 

6.86. Sitronics 

6.87. SMART Technologies 

6.88. SMK Electronics 

6.89. Sony 

6.90. Stantum 

6.91. Synaptics 

6.92. Swenc Technology 

6.93. TAOS Inc. 

6.94. TE Touch Solutions (ELO) 

6.95. Texas Instruments (TI) 

6.96. Toray Advanced Film (TAF) 

6.97. Toshiba Mobile Display (TMD) 

6.98. Touch International 

6.99. Touch Revolution 

6.100. TPK 

6.101. Truly Semi 

6.102. Unidym 

6.103. UniPixel 

6.104. USAN Technology 

6.105. Visual Planet 

6.106. Wacom 

6.107. Wintek 

6.108. Young Fast Optoelectronics 

6.109. Zytronic 

6.110. 3M 

7.1. Market forecast by application 2012-2022 

7.2. Market forecast by technology 2012-2022 

7.3. Primary use markets by technology 

7.3.1. Projected Capacitive 

7.3.2. Analog Resistive 

7.3.3. MARS 

7.3.4. Surface capacitive 

7.3.5. Infrared 

7.3.6. SAW 

7.3.7. Embedded 

7.3.8. Optical Imaging 

7.3.9. Multi-touch 

1.1. Organisations working in touch screens 

2.1. Mainstream Touch Technologies and Applications 

3.1. Main Characteristics of Projected Capacitive Touch Technology 

3.2. Main Characteristics of Analog Resistive Touch Technology 

3.3. Main Characteristics of Surface Capacitive Touch Technology 

3.4. Main Characteristics of Infrared Touch Technology 

3.5. Main Characteristics of Surface Acoustic Wave Touch Technology 

3.6. Main Characteristics of Embedded Touch Technologies 

3.7. Main Characteristics of Optical Imaging Touch Technology 

3.8. Comparison of the most common touch screen technologies 

4.1. Global Indium Production in the last five years 

4.2. Main suppliers of ITO alternatives 

4.3. Comparison of TCF material of Heraeus Clevios and ITO films 

5.1. Overview of the main deposition processes used for transparent conductive (patterned) films in touch screens 

6.1. Specifications fo Flexx 100 and Flexx 300 

6.2. Specifications of DigiTech ITO film 

6.3. Specifications of GeneralTouch Infrared Touch screen technology 

6.4. Specifications Host Optical pro-cap touch panel 

7.1. Touch screen market forecast by application, market value in US$ bn, 2012 to 2022 

7.2. Touch screen market forecast by technology, 2012 to 2022 

7.3. Comparison of the most common touch screen technologies 

7.4. Touch Technology Market applicability by device size 

1.1. Touch market forecast by technology in 2012 

1.2. Conductance in ohms per square for the different printable conductive materials, at typical thicknesses used, compared with bulk metal 

2.1. Main touch screen technologies (mainstream and emerging) with and without transparent electrodes (mainly ITO) 

3.1. How Projected Capacitive Touch Technology Works 

3.2. How Resistive Touch Technology Works 

3.3. How Surface Capacitive Touch Technology Works 

3.4. How Infrared (IR) Touch Technology Works 

3.5. How Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) Technology Works 

3.6. How Optical Touch Technology Works 

3.7. Touch market forecast by technology in 2012 

4.1. Touch Technologies with ITO for the Transparent Conductor 

4.2. Cost of Indium and global Indium production 

4.3. Global Indium Production in 2011: 640 t 

4.4. Global indium production by country from 2007 to 2011 

4.5. Conductance in ohms per square for the different printable conductive materials, at typical thicknesses used, compared with bulk metal 

4.6. Conductivity of several materials 

4.7. PEDOT:PSS conductivity development 

4.8. Polymer-based, 14-inch touch screen panel fabricated by GSI Technologies LLC featuring Kodak HCF-225 film/ESTAR™ Base and Clevios™ PEDOT:PSS coating from Heraeus Precious Metals GmbH & Co. KG. 

4.9. Targeted applications for carbon nanotubes 

4.10. Cambrios Sample TC Film 

4.11. Prototype demonstration of a touch screen using silver nanowire TCE. Schematic of a touch screen fabricated (a) without and (b) with complete connection. Insets show the actual working devices. 

4.12. An electron microscope image of a hybrid electrode developed at Rice University shows solid connections after 500 bends. The transparent material combines single-atom-thick sheets of graphene and a fine mesh of aluminum nanowire o 

4.13. Left: A transparent graphene film transferred on a 35-inch PET sheet. Right: A graphene-based touchscreen panel connected to a computer 

4.14. The researchers built up a graphene layer on copper foil and then used rollers to transfer the graphene to a polymer support and then onto a final substrate 

5.1. Comparison of OLED performance. The top electrode made of printed ITO 

6.1. Z mode actuator by Artificial Muscle 

6.2. CLEAR conductive PET film 

6.3. Touchview product with membrane switch combination 

6.4. AUO 6-inch touch function eBook with Sipix's MicrocupR technology 

6.5. A new flexible film made of copper nanowires and plastic conducts electricity illuminating a small light bulb. 

6.6. Eastman Kodak HCF Film 

6.7. Performance of PEDOT formulation from Eastman Kodak versus ITO 

6.8. Fujitsu's eFLEPia 

6.9. Fujitsu's FLEPia Lite 

6.10. Gunze's touch panel made with Direct Printing Technology, presented early 2009 

6.11. Hanvon N518 e-reader with pen-input touch screen 

6.12. Schematic of isiQiri's Q-Foil-technology 

6.13. Airbus A-380 with J Touch's 23" touch panel at the first class 

6.14. Transmittance vs conductivity for Cu nanowires compared to other technologies 

6.15. Sharp's Mebius PC-NJ70A multi-touch netbook, launched in 2009 

6.16. Sony's Vaio L Series 3D all-in-one PC, launched in 2009 

7.1. Touch screen market forecast by application, market value in US$ bn, 2012 to 2022 

7.2. Touch screen market forecast by technology, 2012 to 2022 

7.3. Market share by technology, by percentage, 2012 to 2022 

7.4. Market size for touch technologies by device size in 2012