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High-clarity Adhesive Sheets Contributing to Ever-diversifying Touch Panel Functions and the Environment Nitto Denko Boosts LUCIACS Lineup for Capacitive Touch Panel Applications

2009.09.08

Japan's leading diversified materials company Nitto Denko Corporation (Nitto Denko) has reinforced its LUCIACS (*) line of high-clarity optical-use adhesive sheets, by adding a newly developed thick-type (175 microns(**)) grade for capacitive touch panel applications, the company announced today.

LUCIACS series is one of Nitto Denko's specialty sheet and film products playing a key role in touch panels for which the market is rapidly growing in smartphone (mobile phones offering advanced capabilities) and game console applications.

While earlier the company had been promoting mainly thin- type LUCIACS sheets for resistive as well as capacitive touch panel applications, it recently started offering also thicker materials for capacitive touch panels which are expected to face a growing demand from now on. Nitto Denko intends to meet the ever-diversifying customer needs by further expanding its LUCIACS lineup, as exemplified by the development and launching of the new thick- type product this time, the company added.

(*) "LUCIACS" is a registered trademark of Nitto Denko Corporation. The name was created by combining the word "lucia", meaning "light" in Italian, and "CS" standing for "clear sheet".

(**) A "micron" is one millionth of a meter

(***) A "Resistive touch panel" is composed of two flexible sheets coated with a conductive material and separated by an air gap or microdots. When contact is made to the surface of the touch panel, the two sheets are pressed together, registering the precise location of the touch. Because the touch panel senses input from contact with nearly any object (finger, stylus/pen, palm) resistive touch panels are a type of "passive" technology. [1]

(***) A "Capacitive touch panel" consists of an insulator such as glass, coated with a transparent conductor such as indium tin oxide (ITO). As the human body is also a conductor, touching the surface of the screen results in a distortion of the local electrostatic field, measurable as a change in capacitance. Different technologies may be used to determine the location of the touch. The location can be passed to a computer running a software application which will calculate how the user's touch relates to the computer software. [2]

1, 2. "Touchscreen", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchscreen. Retrieved 2009-09-14

Background

There are a number of types of touch screen technology, such as the resistive and the capacitive types. While conventionally the resistive technology had been in the mainstream, application of capacitive and other technologies has been rapidly growing in the recent years for enabling the multi-touch operation, or freely enlarging or contracting the screen by just using two fingers.

In a touch panel which generally consists of a lamination of multiple component layers including the transparent conductive film, transparent adhesive sheets for optical applications are used for laminating the layers together. The adhesive sheets not only fill up the interstices in a touch panel, but also contribute to producing high quality visible images on the touch panel screen by adjusting its refractive index.

Based on Nitto Denko's original optical-use, high-clarity adhesive sheet technology, LUCIACS series is being employed widely for both resistive and capacitive touch panel applications. Nitto Denko intends to continue meeting the ever-diversifying customer needs by further expanding its LUCIACS product line now ranging from the thin-type 25-micron to the thick-type 175-micron product launched this time.

Construction of a Capacitive Touch Panel (ITO:indium tin oxide-coated)

External View of LUCIACS Series

Special Features of LUCIACS Series

-High optical performance (high clarity)
-High adhesive reliability and durability
-High-grade appearance quality

Special Features of the New Product

Not only does it demonstrate all the existing special features of LUCIACS series and expands the thickness type of the series, the new thick-type product is also "non-corrosive to transparent conductive films".

Because capacitive touch panels have such a construction that the transparent adhesive sheet is bonded to the conductive film across its entire surface, corrosion of the conductive film due to the adhesive has been a problem. On the other hand, the new LUCIACS product offers excellent corrosion resistance with respect to conductive films by ridding its adhesive of components which corrode metals, such as acrylic acid.

Too, while ink print layers on the optical devices like a window lens tend to be thicker in capacitive touch panels as compared to resistive types, Nitto Denko's LUCIACS lineup can contribute to absorbing those ink-steps and bumps by offering a product of optimal thickness.

Future Direction of LUCIACS Development

-Enhancing the adhesive reliability for various adherent materials
-Enhancing the reworkability permitting the recycling of optical components
-Further expanding the product lineup in terms of thickness range

Focusing on the objectives stated above, Nitto Denko is fully committed to continue meeting our customers' various needs while always being mindful of environment-friendly manufacturing such as solvent-free manufacturing, and to further developing the LUCIACS series toward offering novel functions at all times.

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