Heraeus announces milestone for foldable touchscreens
The German company Heraeus recently set a milestone for foldable touchscreens and flexible displays. Its latest product is characterised by its ultimate flexibility – for the first time films coated with the new Heraeus material can be folded more than 300 000 times without degradation of the electro-optical properties and low sheet resistances of 50 to 100 Ω/m2.
Patterning of the coated films can be accomplished by laser or by an efficient and economic wet-chemical etching process yielding invisible patterns. For direct patterning, an inkjet version is under development. “Our new Clevios hybrid material is an important milestone in the development of foldable touch devices as we have not only optimised the fundamental material properties, but also developed an economic, high-throughput patterning process based on wet-etching for mass-production”, states Dr Wilfried Lövenich, head of innovation at Heraeus New Businesses.