The Conductive Polymers Division of Heraeus Precious Metals GmbH & Co. KG and Eastman Kodak Company’s Industrial Materials Group developed transparent conductive films that can be easily patterned, challenging the dominance of indium tin oxide (ITO) films.

ChipMOS subsidiary ThaiLin Semiconductor Corp. will take on dedicated semiconductor testing capacity for a new long-term service agreement with its client Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corporation (AKM).

UniPixel expanded its design and sampling program for UniBoss transparent conductive film technology and products. OEMs and display and touch panel manufacturers can now evaluate the films, which UNXL calls high-performance, low-cost alternatives to ITO transparent conductors.

IBM Research has emerged as the winner in the ITRI-sponsored Global Nano Innovation Contest. IBM Research presented its graphene nanoelectronics: wafer-scale single atomic layer carbon RF devices and circuits.

Berliner Glas and system elektronik will share their glass processing, bonding, display, and touchscreen technologies to develop OEM human machine interface (HMI) assemblies. The team will investigate new methods for optical bonding of viewing panes and touchscreens.

Displaybank report on capacitive touch panel technology, structures and manufacturing process trends: capacitive touch panels without separate touch sensors, and a move away from film-based and single-layer glass-based panels.

The Future of Mobile Display by ROA Holdings finds that larger panels are increasing mobile device usage, and AMOLED is replacing LCD as the mainstream display technology. Mobile device companies, rather than display makers, are leading the drive for new technologies.

Touchscreens went from showing up in 7% of smartphones in 2006 to being integrated into 75% of the devices in 2010. The next 5-year period will increase touchscreen infiltration to 97% of all smartphones by 2016.

Rice University researchers combined single-layer graphene with a fine aluminum nanowire mesh to create a transparent, flexible, conductive material to rival the more expensive indium tin oxide (ITO) in LEDs, displays, and solar cells.

Laird Technologies released the Tpcm 580SP Series phase change material, a high-performance, screen-printable or stencilable thermal interface material with a thermal conductivity of 4.0W/mK that provides an alternative to thermal grease.

Synaptics will develop reference designs incorporating Cambrios ClearOhm material as a transparent electrode in projected capacitive touch sensors, enabling a wide variety of clear, multi-touch solutions for electronic devices.

Key takeaways from Applied Material's analyst day meetings this week: Where wafer-fab equipment demand is strongest, how solar manufacturing technology can expand, and why tablet computers and electric vehicles are underpinning a resurgence in 200mm demand.