One Glass Solution drives capacitive touch panel production

On-cell and in-cell technologies remain on the agenda of China's display industry. LCD makers continue to lead the initiative, joined by some touch panel suppliers.

China's touch panel industry will still be emphasizing capacitive units based on One Glass Solution in the next two years to take advantage of the type's high yield rate and low production cost. This is while large and midsize manufacturers, albeit mostly from the LCD segment because of the complex technology involved, sustain efforts for the development of on-cell and in-cell displays.

In the mainstream category, there are initiatives to broaden the selection of 10.1 to 42in touchscreens, targeting the estimated 15 percent demand rise from notebook PCs, LCD TVs and advertising applications. Touch panel specialist Shenzhen Touch-China has presented a catalog of 19 to 42in models mainly for computers and TVs. The releases, which can detect 10 touch points and have 85 percent transmittance, support 1280x1280dpi resolution, 500cd/sqm brightness and 5s response time. Dongguan Tonghao and UC Nano will boost their range of larger touchscreens as well.

Output expansion is another objective amid steadily rising requirement in key market smartphones and a spike in wearable devices. The latter application's total sales value worldwide is projected to reach $33.6 billion in 2018 from $9.7 billion in 2012, posting nearly 23 percent CAGR, according to IHS. In capacitive touch panels, Technavio forecasts a 5 percent CAGR in aggregate sales value between 2015 and 2019, mainly fueled by smartphones, wearables and tablet PCs.

Many local companies therefore have increased production by 10 to 20 percent, and most will continue doing so in coming months. Guangzhou GuLing Electronic Technology Co. Ltd bolstered its yield by 10 percent in 2016 and expects the same trend in 2017.

In advanced display categories, only large LCD suppliers such as Shenzhen Tianma and Shenzhen China Star pursue in-cell types, which are harder to manufacture than on-cell units. The former kind has better resolution and is lighter and thinner than its on-cell counterparts. With such advantages, in-cell variants are now favored by more smartphone makers, including homegrown brands Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi and ZTE, besides early adopter Apple. Shenzhen Tianma's in-cell models are used in 5in LCD modules. The maker, one of the local major players, realizedmass production in 2015.

More than 200 companies constitute mainland China's capacitive touch panel segment. Most are local operations and the rest mainly from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Over two-thirds of the pool gathers in Guangdong province and the others in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.