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Alternatives Materials for ITO in Touch Screens

This article is based off the NanoMarkets report The Future of ITO: Transparent Conductor and ITO
Replacement Markets

Touch-screen technology, already widespread in applications ranging from PDAs to checkout

displays, has become even more popular since the introduction of novel consumer electronics Page | 1
such as Apple’s iPhone and follow-on clones. According to a report published by NanoMarkets,
The Future of ITO: Transparent Conductor and ITO Replacement Markets, March 2008, as much
as $118 million in transparent conductor will be sold into the touch-screen market in 2008,
rising to $400 million by 2015.

Transparent conductors combine the electrical conductivity of metal with the optical
transparency of glass. They are the ideal material for touch screens, since they make for nearly
invisible electrical traces. The dominant transparent conductor is indium tin oxide (ITO), which is
found in nearly every touch screen on the market today. Unfortunately, it’s the optical
electronics version of a shampoo-conditioner: While it possesses both properties, it doesn’t
perform either one to optimal standards.

In addition, while demand for indium keeps increasing, sources for it are limited, leading to fears
of rising prices and short supply. Given the proportionate amount of ITO in touch screens, higher
indium prices could have a significant impact on total materials costs. Those concerns have led
the Indium Corporation to put a disclaimer on its Web site reassuring customers of continued
supply at reasonable prices.

More critically, ITO is brittle, and often cracks from overuse, yet touch screens are now
employed in a wide variety of medical devices. For example, the state of the art surgical suites at
UCLA’s newly opened Ronald Reagan Medical Center feature touch screens that allow surgeons
to adjust viewing angles for laparoscopic surgical tools. In such a situation, the stakes for a
cracked ITO rise from merely annoying to possibly life-threatening.

Given all of that, touch screens are the most tempting target for ITO replacement solutions.

Touch Technology

The two primary touch-screen technologies in the marketplace are “resistive touch” and
“capacitive touch.” Resistive touch screens, about 90 percent of the current market, have two
ITO layers that must be pressed together to make electrical contact, which then activates a
controller. The screen interface is a protective outer layer onto which pressure is ideally applied
with a soft stylus. Unfortunately, under real world conditions, pressure is often applied with
pens or sharp fingernails, shortening the life of many resistive touch displays. But even when
pressed only by a stylus, they often crack after repeated flexing.

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By contrast, capacitive touch screens, employed in devices like the iPhone, are activated by
lightly brushing a finger on the screen, eliminating the possibility of cracking (providing the
device isn’t dropped). In this way, they use the body’s own conductance to shift the stored
electrical charge (capacitance) of the device. When the screen is touched by a finger or hand, an
ITO substrate detects the change in the capacitive field, which activates the controller.

Capacitive touch is often called “multi-touch,” since several fingers or even full hands can be
used to direct the devices. New terms may emerge as more trademarked devices are developed. Page | 2
Microsoft, for example, has a tabletop capacitive touch screen it calls “Microsoft Surface.”
Depending on the sophistication of the underlying programming, capacitive touch also allows
for much more fluid navigation than “press here” resistive screens, such as the iPhone’s ability
to “zoom in.” In the next few years, capacitive screens will make serious in-roads into sales of
resistive touch screens.

Due to their tendency to crack, resistive touch screens are the leading edge of the ITO
replacement market. In addition, since ITO is used as part of the flat panel display in all touch
screens, as well as the electrical control, it would be advantageous to have a ready supply of an
alternative material.

Search for Alternatives

There are four areas in which the alternatives compete: price, conductivity, transparency, and
resiliency. Although several alternatives score well in two or three areas, none have yet scored
on all four. More challenging, many are still in the development phase.

Other transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) might seem a good place to start, since they often
cost less than ITO, while possessing its favorable characteristics (transparency, conduction).
Unfortunately, they share its worst one as well: They tend to crack under repeated use. If
researchers improve the electrical conduction of alternate TCOs, they may find a home in some
applications, but they would not be an improvement for touch screens.

Of the potential ITO replacements, perhaps the best known is the conducting polymer PEDOT
Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), which has already been used by Fujitsu to build touch
screens. The good news is that it is both more flexible and far cheaper than ITO, at only about
ten percent of its price. The bad news is that conductive polymers are less conductive than
metals. Nevertheless, doping and other laboratory strategies can be used to improve their
conductivity. But even with improved chemistry, PEDOT can degrade under UV light.

H.C. Starck markets a proprietary formulation (PEDOT:PSS) under the tradename “Baytron,”
which is a compound of PEDOT with polystyrene sulfonic acid. Starck says its latest version has
conductivities that equal some metal oxides. But, at conductivities of up to 500 C/cm, it is still an
order of magnitude less conductive than ITO (6000 C/cm). PEDOT:PSS is a likely leading
contender in the replacement market because it is highly transparent and thermally stable in
comparison to other polymers. In addition, the potential is there to tweak the formula to further
increase its conductivity without degrading its transparency.

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Despite hope for a new kind of electronics based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), so far they are
still more in the research phase than the application phase. If they advance, they have several
advantages for touch screens. They are highly conductive and flexible, and would be relatively
transparent at the necessary densities—making for good, potential ITO replacements.
Companies such as Eikos and Unidym are pouring a lot of resources into developing commercial
carbon nanotubes, but nothing yet exists that would transform the touch-screen market.
Unidym is working on a CNT-based conductive film, which it plans to market as an ITO
Page | 3
replacement in touch screens and other displays. The company plans to jointly develop touch
screens for the video game industry with Japanese manufacturer Touch Panel Laboratories.
However, in the immediate future, carbon nanotubes likely will be most often used for
electrostatic coatings, according to Eikos.

While there are other nanomaterials that are not specifically nanotubes, none have made it to
the marketplace. Companies doing research in this area include Sony, DuPont, and Cambrios,
co-founded by MIT professor and MacArthur Award winner Angela Belcher. Still, this area leaves
room for optimism—both carbon nanotubes and other nanomaterials are the only areas where
truly novel, market-changing technical breakthroughs could occur. One example is the metallic
nanowire arrays developed by the lab of L. Jay Guo at the University of Michigan. They are
ductile, flexible, and conductive; their mesh-like structure gives them transparency. Guo is now
considering researching their potential use in touch screens.

Other ITO-based Formulations

These are not replacements, per se, but re-workings of traditional ITO manufacturing processes,
such as ITO nanopowders and ITO inks. Most are still in the research phase, and while they may
eventually offer flexible solutions to fabrication, they have not overcome ITO’s traditional
problems.

ITO is likely to dominate the touch-screen market for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, since
there are good reasons to find a replacement, NanoMarkets predicts that by 2015, ITO will only
be 44.8 percent of the market. By 2015, we believe the top three replacements in order of
market penetration will be: organics (PEDOT) at 18 percent; carbon nanotube-based
formulations at 15 percent; and other nanomaterials at 9 percent.

For additional information about NanoMarkets and its full listing of reports
and services please visit us on the web at www.nanomarkets.net or emailing
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