Vertical Divider

Tanaka Claims Technology Will Enhance Image Quality, Reduce Thickness, Increase Flexibility of Smartphone Touch Panels
May 14, 2018

 
Tanaka Holdings Co., Ltd. CEO: Akira Tanae announced that the company discovered a single-sided, dual-layer wiring structure for metal meshes together with a method for manufacturing the structure and has commenced development for commercial application. Touch panels normally have a structure made from two sensor substrates - an X sensor substrate and a Y sensor substrate. Tanaka discovered a technique for forming both the X sensor and Y sensor wiring on a single layer flexible substrate. The discovery was made by applying the metal mesh wiring technology forming overlapping silver nano-ink wire circuitry on one side of the film (creating a single-sided, dual-layer metal mesh film). As a result, only one sensor substrate is needed, which reduces costs as well as improving image quality and making panels slimmer. Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo also discovered a transparent (conducting) electrode formed by etching indium tin oxide (ITO), which is commonly used in touch panel sensors, on a glass substrate and created a structure expected to improve bending strength (increased flexibility) that even metal mesh films cannot withstand as well as a method of manufacturing this structure.

Features include:

• Single-sided, dual-layer structure contributes to slimness and improved bending strength (improved flexibility). 
• Sintered low temperature silver nano-ink and a SuPR-NaP technique for pattern formation, fine wires less than 4 um (2 um - 4 um) can be formed.

 
Researchers in Japan have uncovered and mapped enormous reserves of rare earth metals, which are vital to the production of modern electronics, in a finding that will undermine Chinese producers' de facto monopoly on the key materials.  Fifteen elements in the lanthanide chemical family and two metals -scandium and yttrium - comprise the rare earth metals market. These elements are fundamental to the production of electric motors, nuclear reactors, mobile phones, conventional and electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels, and missile guidance systems. 

The Chinese government is believed to have tried to corner the global market on behalf of Chinese firms for strategic political reasons, by subsidizing production until non-Chinese rivals went out of business. Chinese producers now account for 95 per cent of the global market.  However, the team of Japanese scientists from several of the country's universities, businesses and government institutions, said the new mineral deposit could offer "great potential as ore deposits for some of the most critically important elements in modern". It was found within Japanese economic waters, in the country's western Pacific Ocean near Minamitorishima Island, Japan. The deposit, dubbed "rare earth oxide" was found in a sample area of the mineral-rich region and apparently contains more than 16 million tons of the elements needed to build high-tech products, according to the study, which was released Tuesday in Reports. The researchers said the mineral "has the potential to supply these metals on a semi-infinite basis to the world" due to there being hundreds of years of reserves of most of the rare earths. The team has also developed an efficient method to separate valuable elements from others in the mud. The study also emphasized the significance of the efforts to develop efficient and economic methods to collect this deep-sea mud.