Carestream Health’s New Transparent Conductive Film Offers Highly Flexible, Durable Alternative To ITO-Based Films

Touch panel manufacturers searching for an alternative to indium tin oxide (ITO) films found a new answer when Carestream Advanced Materials debuted a line of transparent conductive films at FPD International 2010 in Japan. The new Carestream Flexx transparent conductive films directly address flexibility, durability and cost issues typically associated with ITO films.

Carestream Advanced Materials developed Flexx transparent conductive films by applying the company’s 100 years of expertise in nanomaterial science and thin film precision roll-to-roll coating. The new film features a patented silver nanomaterial technology that allows for exceptional conductance and superior optical performance. The nanomaterial is coated onto a resilient polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film to create a film that is far more flexible and much less expensive to produce than ITO-based offerings.

“Device manufacturers have been limited by the drawbacks of ITO for a long time, including brittleness, high cost, relatively low durability and occasional scarcity of product,” said Bruno Merry, general manager for Carestream Advanced Materials. “Our Flexx films exceed standards for optical transparency and offer customers many benefits that were not previously available.”

“Our PET-based product—which is manufactured using a high-yield, roll-to-roll precision coating process—is also far less brittle than ITO-based films,” Merry added. “It is able to offer longer life performance for transaction terminals and other devices that are exposed to high-traffic use. Also, our films are easily etched using common methods, resulting in optical properties that are highly desirable for projected capacitive touch panels.”

Carestream Advanced Materials is targeting touch panels, OLED lighting and displays, flexible displays, printed electronics and photovoltaics with its new products. “We are initially offering 300 ohm/square and a 100 ohm/square products with an optional hardcoat, which is ideal for resistive and projected capacitive touch screen applications,” Merry explained. “We will be introducing more products on various flexible substrates for a much broader range of applications in the next year.”

Flexx transparent conductive films are the first products brought to market by Carestream Advanced Materials. “Carestream Health became an independent company in 2007,” said Paul Herro, director, corporate development, Carestream Advanced Materials. “While we have the energy and focus of a new enterprise, we also have the established manufacturing facilities and global logistics network of a Fortune 500 company. Our customers can count on us to be a highly responsive and stable provider.”