As we reported from CES, 3M Touch has now adopted its own metal mesh film technology for its larger touch monitor business. The company told us the reasons that it is able to adopt the technology, without hitting problems with moiré or having to adopt different mesh patterns to match different pixel pitches – the classic objections to metal mesh technology.
3M told us that there are a couple of key breakthroughs. In particular, the mesh lines are very fine at just 3µ rather than the “typical” 10µ width used by other makers. The company also told us that the wires have been “blackened”, which helps them to be less visible than the metallic finish seen from other variants. This technique was borrowed from work done by 3M Japan in its development of films for flat panel displays.
The firm has also made life easier for integrators by moving all the “tails” round to one side of the module. This makes it much easier to build and repair modules. It can support glass thickness from 1.6mm at 26″ to 4mm on larger sizes. Tests have been made on glass at up to 6mm, although, of course, noise can become an issue and touch sensitivity and performance would be compromised. Staff felt that few applications would need 6mm tempered glass.
Analyst Comment
3M had some modules being shown and we looked closely to see if we could see the mesh. I couldn’t, although there was some haze, as you would expect.
3M was showing the transparency of its metal mesh technology. Image: Meko
