Teijin Chemicals enters electronic paper market

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Teijin Chemicals Ltd, the core company of the Teijin Group’s plastics business, has begun manufacturing and selling transparent conductive films that are expected to be used in new versions of electronic paper that are lighter and thinner than conventional products on the market.

Teijin Chemicals has begun selling two types of transparent conductive films: SS120, which uses polycarbonate (PC) film as substrate, and HP125, which uses polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film as substrate. The former is suited for electronic paper that uses liquid crystal and the latter is suited for electronic paper that uses electrically charged particles.

For both films, Teijin Chemicals utilizes proprietary high-precision coating technology to form the hard coating layer and vacuum coating technology to form the gas barrier layer and the transparent conductive layer.

The company boasts a fully comprehensive processing system covering every stage, from the design of products consisting of substrate and layers to manufacturing. Moreover, Teijin Chemicals manufactures PC film and Teijin DuPont Films manufactures PET film, so both substrates are produced within the Teijin Group.

Electronic or “rewritable” paper has the ability of conventional paper to display fixed information without consuming power and the ability of electronic devices to display changeable information. The market for electronic paper is expected to grow rapidly in fields including e-books, mobile phones, wristwatches, electronic tags, point-of-purchase advertising, digital signage and more.

The majority of electronic paper currently available on the market is made with glass substrate, but transparent conductive film is expected to be increasingly adopted as the main substrate of future electronic paper because it enables the production of lighter and thinner devices.

Teijin Chemicals’ high-quality transparent conductive film using polycarbonate film as substrate already is used widely in touch panels. In addition to electronic paper, the film is expected to find additional applications, such as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs).