Flex Edge™ Sensors Used for Bezel-Less Design

Regardless if the touch screen is getting bigger or smaller, companies are working on ways to get the bezel as thin as possible. A zero-bezel (or bezel-less) PCAP touch sensor solution is now achievable with our Flex Edge™ Sensor.

In this video you can see the sensor actuating along the entire edge of the box.

The Flex Edge sensor, made with Kodak HCF (Highly Conductive Film), takes advantage of highly flexible nature of the Clevios PEDOT conductive polymer manufactured by Heraeus. Printed PEDOTs extreme flexibility allows the sensor material to be folded to fit the form and function of a bezel-less solution.

Fun fact: Kodak started applying PEDOT as an anti-static material to its motion picture film back in 2003.

As an ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) alternative, there is nothing more flexible than Kodak HCF. ITO is a metal which does not like to flex at all.

Other ITO alternatives, such as silver nanowire and metal-mesh, show signs of fatigue or fracturing during repeated flex cycling of the material. PEDOT maintains a tight tolerance on surface resistivity so well that our friends at SigmaSense made a flexible touch sensor demo (check it out here @ 0:38 seconds).

We wish we could say there is cutting edge polymer science on display, but its not. These are proven materials that have been around for many years. We simply did a little origami to make it fit into the box nicely.

Xymox Technologies continues to invest heavily into the patterning of Kodak HCF film to create optically superior capacitive touch sensors. Our proprietary process creates the electrode patterns without removing any conductive material from the substrate. Laser ablation removes material leaving a sharp edge that can reflect light and be visible to the eye. Our chemical process dramatically increases the surface resistivity of the film so we get a functional sensor without physically removing the PEDOT material.

This touch sensor demo takes touch screen design possibilities over the edge (pun intended, we couldn’t resist).

To get a sample of our patterned the material or learn more about our sensors and capabilities, click here to contact us.

Come see this demo live at LOPEC March 23-24, we’ll be at the Heraeus booth (B0.206)!