Unidym is developing CNT-based transparent conductive films in partnership with customers and suppliers in the touch panel, display, and solar industries. Unidym's films have two primary applications:
- As a replacement for the brittle and expensive indium tin oxide (ITO) coated films currently used in such products as touch screens, LCD displays, solar cells, and solid state (OLED) lighting. The existing market for ITO is approximately $1 billion for the material alone, not including its deposition.
Perfect Successor to ITO
Benefits of Unidym Films
Unidym's CNT-based films have demonstrated to be mechanically more robust than ITO, and can be deposited using a variety of low-cost and low-impact methods. Further, such films are chemically resistant and are manufactured from carbon, which is one of the most abundant elements on Earth. CNT prices continue to decrease every year, and Unidym expects to expand its existing film production to a commercial scale by end of 2009. In addition, CNT Transparent Conductive Films (TCF) offer a more “Green” solution to ITO based film products as “zero” hazardous chemical etchants are not used in the TCF manufacturing process.
Problems with ITO
Although ITO is currently the most commonly used transparent electrode material; it can be an inadequate solution for many device applications due to its brittle nature and correspondingly inferior flexibility and abrasion resistance. In addition, the indium component of ITO is rapidly becoming a scarce, and therefore increasingly-expensive, commodity, which has fueled demand for lower-cost solutions in recent years. Moreover, integration of ITO components into products such as LCD displays requires an expensive process that is complicated by ITO's incompatibility with many chemicals used in the display manufacturing process.
