Application Watch: Makers stress improved touch panels for smart homes

Competing for the expanding smart home market, touch panel suppliers strive for differentiation while remaining open to customization.

Highlighting enhanced sensitivity and operating life, suppliers of capacitive touch panels in China continue to position the line for smart home applications. They are eyeing projections of robust growth of the terminal market in the next five years.

Companies offer multitouch types usually with a response time of less than 10ms and an operating life of up to 10 million touches. For better differentiation, some have stepped up and launched models with 5ms and more than 10 million touches.

Dongguan Cloudtop has introduced 10.4in such units for smart homes, medical devices and industrial uses. With a glass-ITO-glass structure, the products have over 6H surface hardness, more than 85 percent transparency and 214.2x159.4mm viewing area.

Dongguan Fangsheng Electronic Co. Ltd's touchscreens boast a transparency surpassing 92 percent and an operating life span of 300 million touches.

Besides improving product performance, China suppliers of touch panels continue to find ways to offer cost-effective alternatives. Shenzhen Zhi Ling Wei Ye has turned to metal mesh technology, replacing ITO in units mainly for smart home, medical, automotive and industrial applications.

For the majority of local companies, the general practice in R&D and manufacturing is still to meet buyers' requirements, which account for 30 to 60 percent of total shipments. Customization will remain a trend in the years to come.

Driving individual company initiatives is upbeat forecast for the smart home industry. Globally, the market scale as of end-2018 is estimated to have reached as much as $96 billion, rising 14 percent from the previous year, according to Strategy Analytics. By 2023, the total will hit $155 billion.

An additional impetus is the China smart home sector itself, which was at $47.86 billion in 2017 and is expected to maintain a CAGR of 21.4 percent within the next three years, according to iResearch.

So, companies such as Dongguan Fangsheng will emphasize this terminal market through 2020. More than 70 percent of the maker’s capacitive touchscreens are for smart home devices. Dongguan Fangsheng said it would continue to boost output. In 2018, its production increase exceeded 60 percent.

There are at least 200 manufacturers of capacitive touch panels in China, a number expected to grow as more LCD module specialists venture into this upstream line. Most cater to the smart home market and also offer LCD modules and other optoelectronic components. The major suppliers include Laibao Hi-Tech, Success Electronics, BOE and Tianma and their foreign counterparts G-Touch and Microtouch.

Homegrown companies export between 20 and 80 percent of yield, mainly to Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. The Middle East, South America and Russia are the other markets. Despite the US-China trade dispute, overseas shipments will continue to rise by 10 to 15 percent in the next two years.

More than 60 percent of the supplier pool is in Guangdong province, congregating in the cities of Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhongshan and Huizhou.

4 to 10in selection

For smart home applications, the typical range includes multitouch units in 4 to 10in variants with more than 6H surface hardness and above 85 percent transparency. Releases have a response time of less than 10ms and life span surpassing 10 million touches.

By structure, the options include one glass solution, glass-glass and glass-film kinds.

Manufacturers turn to various sources for key materials and components. ICs usually come from foreign providers such as Cypress and Atmel, and ITO film and cover lenses from suppliers in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Locally made glass and adhesive are used, but to accommodate requests, makers purchase glass from Asahi and the latter from 3M.

Input and labor costs rose in the past year, forcing some companies to raise touch panel prices by 3 to 5 percent. The majority, however, maintained rates to win more orders.

In the months ahead, outlay may become stable and keep quotes at current levels.

The products in this gallery have been handpicked by our mainland China-based market analyst for representing current trends in capacitive touch panels from mainland China and Taiwan makers.

Capacitive touch panel adopts double-sided ITO sensor glass

This capacitive touch panel with ≥88 percent transparency from CNK Electronics Co. Ltd, CNKP0430-12010A-TP model, uses double-sided ITO sensor glass with PET film. It has outline dimensions of 109.57x65.52mm and thickness of 0.7±0.05mm. Operating temperature is -20 to 70 C.

The model has a 500-unit minimum order. Delivery lead time is 7 days.

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1.3 to 15.6in capacitive touch panel

Dalian Eastern Display Co. Ltd's model OGS capacitive touch panel integrates I²C and USB interfaces. This single- or multitouch unit is available in 1.3 to 15.6in sizes, 1 to 7H surface hardness, and 0.55, 0.7, 1.1, 1.3, 1.6, 1.8 or 2mm thickness.

The minimum order of 1,000 units is for delivery within 35 days.

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10-point capacitive touch panel

The 7inch model from Dongguan Fangsheng Electronic Co. Ltd is a 10-point capacitive touch panel with more than 92 percent transparency, 6H surface hardness and a life span exceeding 300 million touches. The unit, which adopts a glass-glass or glass-PET structure, operates in -30 to 60 C.

The negotiable minimum order has a delivery lead time of 7 days.

Capacitive touch panel has 6H surface hardness

Model PT0434880TC-B101 5-point capacitive touch panel from Palm Technology Co. Ltd uses a GT968 driver and integrates an I²C interface. The 2.8 to 3.3V unit with glass lens-ITO or glass-FPC-adhesive structure has a surface hardness of 6H and ≥87 percent transmittance. It measures 85x120x1.73mm.

The order quantity is negotiable. Delivery is within 7 days.

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10.1in capacitive touch panel has ≥90% transmittance

This 10.1in capacitive touch panel from Victronix Co. Ltd, CTP-T101CAH-03 model, has ≥6H surface hardness and ≥90 percent transmittance. It uses a GT928 driver and supports an I²C interface. Outline dimensions are 234.6x142.5x2.15mm andthe sensor is 232.66x137.78mm. The unit operates in -20 to 70 C.

The minimum order is negotiable. Delivery is within 20 days.

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10.1in capacitive touch panel has 10ms response time

Yes Optoelectronics Co. Ltd markets the model 10.1inchTP 10-point capacitive touch panel with 2.8 to 3.6V rated voltage and 10ms response time.

The order quantity is negotiable. Delivery is within 7 days.

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