Canatu and E Ink team up to make flexible touch displays for wearables
Canatu, a leading manufacturer of next-generation flexible and 3D formable transparent conductive films and touch sensors based in Helsinki, Finland, cooperates with the Taiwanese company E Ink, a renowned innovator of electronic paper display technology (EPD).
The two companies are working together with the objective to offer a line of flexible touch displays for the wearable market, with the first product ready for sampling to customers in July 2016. The product will combine a reflective E Ink 6.3in EPD Display with Canatu’s OPS Touch.
The product is bendable and ultra-thin, with module thickness of only 0.162mm. Reflective displays enable minimal energy consumption: different patterns can be displayed on screen with no energy needed when not interacting. With these features make the product ideal for wearable applications such as bracelets and other wrist worn devices. The viewing area of the touch display is particularly large enabling many innovative user interface options. E Ink also provides a 3rd party application development package enabling faster time to market.
“The wearable market demands robust and durable materials and solutions. We are working with E Ink in several projects and as we share a united understanding of what high performance represents, we have teamed up to make a reference product we are sure will be a great success”, says Canatu’s VP marketing and sales Erkki Soininen.
“Our past collaboration with Canatu has given us the confidence to start developing a consumer product together. E Ink brings value to the market with durable, low power displays in previously impossible or unimaginable applications and environments. Canatu’s products support these innovative designs,” explains Zhu Lin, Mobile BU head at E Ink.
The E Ink 6.3in display has a resolution of 200×1040 at 169 ppi, with 16 gray levels. It is based on E Ink’s a-Si backplane technology.
Canatu’s One-Plastic Solution (OPS) is an all-in-one touch solution incorporating a display window, touch sensor and decoration. OPS is specifically targeted to the wearable market. The world’s thinnest window-integrated touch solution at total thickness of down to 40mm, OPS withstands extreme bending and folding, making it particularly well-suited for wearable, foldable and rollable devices. OPS is built using Canatu’s CNB Film, which has virtually no change in sheet resistivity even after 150 000 bends at 1mm radius.