Polymer touch panels promise longer life

A new generation of resistive touch panels based on an organic conductive polymer are billed as the first practical application for a conductive plastic.

Fujitsu Components Europe has developed a new generation of resistive touch panels based on an organic conductive polymer.

It is the first practical application for a conductive plastic, and the new conductive polymer panel offers 10x the durability of a conventional resistive touch panel.

"Film on glass" resistive touch panels, found on applications such as PDAs, cash registers and kiosks are traditionally made with a hard ceramic ITO (indium tin oxide) film.

The life expectancy of this sort of panel is limited by the weakness of the ITO layer.

Fujitsu's new generation of touch panel replaces the ITO layer with an organic conductive polymer.

This polymer is more flexible and therefore provides a more durable touch surface that extends the operational life of the touch panel, especially in repeated touch applications such as PDAs, mobile phones, tablet PCs or pen based devices, by supporting 10x more finger input and 5x more pen sliding.

The polymer based panel will be compatible with the standard four-wire resistive panel interface, making it easier for designers to upgrade their existing solutions without having to design a new specific interface.

This new technology is introduced on two types of panels, the film/glass wire panel and the shock resistant film/plastic panel.

Initially, the panels will be available in selected sizes and then expanded to cover all standard product sizes.

Volume production is expected to begin in Q3 2007.

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