Silver Nanometer: "Soul material" for flexible screens
What is nanowire
Cambrios, the world's largest holder of nanosilver wire patents, has filed an invalid claim on C3 Nano's patent for a transparent conductive film for nanowires, media reported, sparking a patent war among the world's largest nanosilver technology giants. Nanometer silver wire is a conductive material. Nanometer silver wire ink material is coated on plastic or glass substrate, and then laser lithography is used to depict a transparent conductive film with nanometer silver wire conductive network pattern. As the raw materials are mainly composed of silver and nanometer, nanometer silver wire has not only good electrical conductivity, but also excellent light transmittance and flexure resistance, so it can be used to make ultra-small circuit. With the popularity of flexible display products, ITO conductive glass has exposed its own shortcomings. Due to the brittleness of ITO, it is necessary to have glass as protective layer in its application, which limits the flexible development direction of touch screen. In order to solve the above problems, many touch panel manufacturers at home and abroad have to start to develop ITO as an alternative technology. Nano silver wire is one of them.
The main material of OLED
Since the hype of flexible OLED, all links in the industry chain, such as substrates, modules, screen films, etc., have been dug up upside down. Why do we ignore nanowiline? At present, Samsung, Huawei and other manufacturers that have announced the release of foldable screen mobile phones have not revealed the use of nano-silver wire materials; In 2014, foreign media reported that Apple's Iwatch officially adopted TPK TPK's nanoscale silver film technology, and Apple's move can be regarded as an endorsement of nanoscale silver wire. On The afternoon of February 19, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) unveiled a new patent for the Apple Watch, which USES a flexible screen to make both the Watch face and strap work as a display. In addition, after Samsung and Huawei successively released fold-screen mobile phones, Apple has also formally joined the flexible screen war; Apple has updated a patent that depicts what a foldable iPhone looks like. As two recent moves suggest, Apple's move to lag behind Samsung and Huawei with foldable screens is more like a coup. Just think, five years ago, Apple was already using nanowires. Five years from now, when Apple enters the fold screen war, will its silver nanowires be its ultimate weapon?
Intersection of Chinese and American Enterprises
Although the domestic market of nanowires is almost monopolized by American enterprises, it does not mean that Chinese enterprises have no technology at all. Cambrios and C3Nano, the two companies engaged in the "nanowire patent war", were founded in 2004. Cambrios is now the company with the most nanowire patents in the world. It has obtained 157 patents at home and abroad, covering all aspects of materials, film formation, manufacturing process and application. At the same time, Cambrios is the first company in the world to mass-produce and successfully commercialize nanowires, and is also the largest nanowires supplier in the market. Currently, Cambrios' technology patents have already been used in China. C3Nano is an advanced materials company dedicated to developing new materials and chemical technologies for a wide range of electronic applications. It is a leader in the core technologies of the touch, display and flexible electronics industry and transparent conductive technology based on nano-silver. Obviously, in the development process of nanowire technology, Chinese and American companies have repeatedly encountered each other, and maybe this will become the next "intersection" of Chinese and American patents.
