Innovations: Cheaper touchscreens made from carbon nanotubes

The idea

Innovation is the key to success in every field. In some fields, it is a matter of survival. One such field is the fast-paced consumer electronics market that’s currently thriving on touchscreen interface. With an intention to add more to the regular touchscreens, researchers have developed touchscreens containing carbon nanotubes, which researchers say offer similar performance to ITO a.k.a indium tin oxide – that’s used in present day capacitive touchscreen, but at a much cheaper price.

carbon nanotube touchscreen

Brainchild

The new carbon Touchscreens have been developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation in Stuttgart, Germany under the guidance of Project Manager Ivica Kolaric.

The Making

Researchers at Fraunhofer have used low cost polymers and carbon nanotubes to develop new age touchscreens. The electrode foil is made of two layers – one is a thin foil made of inexpensive polyethylenterephthalate PET used for making plastic bottles. The other is made when mixture of a carbon nanotubes and electrically conducting polymers is applied to a thin polyethylenterephthalate [PET] foil, which on drying makes a thin film to create this two-layered electrode material.

What’s new?

The benefit of the low-cost formula is mainly its quick sensitivity to touch. A slight touch on the screen enables instant processing and usage of the device. Whereas its non-durability to extensive humidity, pressure or UV light makes this plastic combination fragile, though the researchers say it is fair enough for an application in electrical systems.

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What’s refreshing?

Carbon is renewable, inexpensive and available in abundance and the flexible foil can be used in applications other than Touchscreens as compared to ITO technology which is not only costly and limited in supply but also lacks flexibility.

Applications

Touchscreens are popularly used in all types of consumer electronics, thus a new form of touchscreen that can be cheaply made and is flexible in design, can be used in a variety of ways – from making responsive displays to photovoltaic foils.