Member Info for Lindon

Just to stop anyone getting carried away about that console! AUO to launch high resolution mobile device panels and car display total solutions at SID Display Week Press release; Rodney Chan, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 3 June 2014] AU Optronics (AUO) has announced that it will participate in Display Week 2014 in San Diego from June 3 to 5. Organized by SID (The Society for Information Display), Display Week is the largest professional display exhibition in the United States. With the focus of ultra high resolution technologies for mobile solutions and innovative display applications, AUO will debut a whole series of car displays from 7- to 12.3-inch for in-vehicle infotainment systems, and high value-added applications including 21.3-inch AHVA (advanced hyper-viewing angle) display for high-end medical diagnostic use and fingerprint sensing technology with a panel that is large and thin. Exhibition highlights also include 8-inch ultra high resolution WQXGA (1600x2560) panel for tablets applying amorphous silicon (a-Si) TFT process technology, 5.5-inch ultra high resolution WQHD (1440x2560) LTPS (low temperature polysilicon) panel for smartphones, 15.6-inch Full HD touch solutions adopting oTP (on-cell touch panel), a 1.6-inch ultrathin in-cell touch AMOLED panel for wearable devices, and 5-inch flexible AMOLED panel. Car displays designed for intelligent vehicle systems AUO will present its complete portfolio of car displays, including 7-inch capacitive touch display, 8-inch high brightness car display, 9-inch portrait car display for center consoles, and 12.3-inch high resolution cluster display. The panels feature high resolutions, wide viewing angle, high color saturation, high tolerance to temperature, low reflection, and standardized designs for intelligent vehicle display systems. For lovers of outdoor activities, 6.1-inch oTP for professional navigation devices is developed to meet their needs. As demand grows for the connection of portable devices with vehicle systems, AUO will proactively integrate touch panels to develop all sorts of innovative car display applications for audio-visual entertainment, communications and safety purposes.

Whoops... DOES look like Atmel have a booth! Strange they have not announced they were going & don't appear the exhibitors list. Do HP etc. have Corning.... Oh yes virtually every mobile device on the market have one form of Gorilla Glass... either glass 2, 3, or NBT. The low end usually has cheaper Corning Soda Lime glass.

There are photos of XSense with 0.4mm plus some other Atmel gear on Atmel's Facebook page. But the stand looks to belong to Corning https://www.facebook.com/AtmelCorporation

gocarlo, You wouldn't find reference to Atmel... they didnt plan to be at Computex... its Corning who are displaying the collaboration sample.

Not really. I bought CAR well over 5 years ago for the small Co. growth part of my portfolio. I did that for FLT in manufacturing not for mobile sensors. I've used a stop loss but only very selectively, I prefer to make my own investment decisions. Iv'e been in & completly out when I've thought I've spotted a drop in prospect. But bought back exactly the same number of shares when the dust settled. After 20 odd yrs of trading I've learnt NEVER to top up... what you guys call averaging down. Ive found buying on a rising tide is far better than buying on the ebb, you spend more initially but lose less & make more gains. I've made losses from time to time but hold the same number of shares & overall around 10% up... pretty miserable over 5 years! But for growth companies I take a 10 yr view. It has become far to commoditised IMO. Hopefully it'll gain some traction but the opposition seem to have become at least as equally as good & there are around 200 sensor panel makers. Its no longer about the quality or the technology, those issues have now pretty much equalled out across the board... its now just about who can do the top notch quality at the cheapest selling price IMO. There are several other very well known TS makers who are saying they can do top notch quality & my idea of due diligence is to take into account the quality, the technology & the other players of the market I invest in. Not just the company... but IF it can differentiate with its product. I don't believe Carclo's coated film can do that now which is a shame but I still hold because my original reason for holding is growing. We have now reached the stage where Carclo have a dedicated facility for printed electronics & I believe that is where Carclo's future lies. Even if XSense gets great success it will be no more than a flash in the pan IMO. ALWAYS at risk of the next big thing to come along. MY hope is the cost of any eventual failure doesn't destroy the rest of the company so I'm just as anxious as everyone else for some shortish term traction to enable the XSense capex to be recovered! My advice to anyone who is in it purely for XSense is to get out & cut their losses as soon as it comes anywhere near good for them... if it ever does! Don't continue to hold in hope that it'll rule the world one day! That is no longer going to happen! I'm now thinking of buying more but only if it gets down to 85-90p which I believe is fair value for the rest of the company, but even then I will wait to have a look at it when the full time results are known.

“With our latest achievements, FlatFrog In-glass Touch technology is proven superior to the leading projected capacitive technology in terms of flexibility and support for new user interface functions for the PC and Large Screen market. FlatFrog Touch enables cost-efficient scaling of display size and seamless integration of new features.” said Dhwani Vyas, CEO of FlatFrog. “FlatFrog already offers a superior performance touch product that is now future-proof.” .... About FlatFrog FlatFrog is revolutionizing the touch industry with its patented in-glass touch technology. FlatFrog’s products offers a perfect touch and viewing experience, supporting over 40 touches with unique pressure detection in a flush, bezel-free design. FlatFrog Touch is designed for mass production and integration into tablets, PCs and large interactive displays. FlatFrog Laboratories AB is based in Lund, Sweden. For more information, visit http://www.flatfrog.com

Atmel may well eventually admit defeat. That question was already posed by an analyst at the last presentation. Atmel admitted capex around $17m & that they were looking at ways to monetarise & return value to their shareholders. Almost exactly 12 months ago CAR's sp went from around 380 to 422p on the back of supposed leaks from the big Berlin show. Lemmings & cliffs sprung to mind. If there is no positive news the same effect is likely to happen tomorrow the up- tick will be reversed & probably doubled... just like last time! FlatFrog, a leading provider of multi-touch systems, announced today its latest achievements within user interfaces and touch screens that will be demonstrated at Computex Taipei and SID display week in San Diego. FlatFrog Touch integrates Gesture Recognition FlatFrog has integrated its unique in-glass touch technology with gesture recognition. Integrated gesture recognition allows users to interact dynamically with the display, either in close proximity or at a distance. Just as touch was a leap forward in user interaction, the combination of touch and gestures will be the next step in the evolution of touch screens. The gesture functionality is integrated behind the touch module, enabling true flush, edge-to-edge designs with minimum mechanical design changes to the customer product. The combination of touch and gestures into a single interface product will enable new powerful user experiences and exciting application features. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120620/538439 ) (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140603/689941 ) FlatFrog Touch for Curved Screens FlatFrog is showcasing with lead customers our latest curved screen touch solution. FlatFrog’s in-glass touch technology detects touches by transmitting light inside the glass cover lens independent of its shape. Touches can therefore be detected on curved and bent cover lenses with perfect optical clarity. Curved screens help reduce reflections that impact brightness and color and enables better readability. FlatFrog believes the use of curved screens will be increasing prevalent in PC, monitor and TV applications – all target markets for FlatFrog Touch. FlatFrog ZG[TM]touch screens in up to 65″sizes FlatFrog now offers a range of zero air gap (ZG[TM]) touch screens for displays from 20″ to 65″. The products are available in different versions from 2 touches up to over 40 simultaneous touches. They all offer perfect optical clarity in an ultra-thin, flush edge-to-edge design. Optional features include: — Unlimited glove support — Palm rejection — Built-in multi-finger pressure detection — Windows 8.1 certification — Support for stylus with 1.5 mm tip A range of high-volume consumer PC products can already be enabled with FlatFrog Touch including, Tablets, PCs and Monitors. The ZG[TM] design is perfect for high-resolution displays in compu

Well Carclo are certainly worried about them & with good reason. According to Walker they are already producing 1.5m per month with very little wastage. They are a vertical integrated company so they have no need collaborate with anyone else & NO supply chain to worry about. Direct printing WILL beat litho because its loads cheaper in material costs & a far faster method of production. Embedded metal, 2 micron line witdth & zero haze! I'm not surprised Carclo are concerned. If Pro 3 isn't XSense then it almost certain that its O-Film IMO. "Printing metal-mesh is going to beat litho & laser" &#61558;O-film is the “800-pound gorilla” of metal mesh! &#61672;Largest touch-module maker in China, #3 globally &#61558;O-film technical details &#61672;Additive process with little waste &#61672;< 2 &#956;m line width &#61672;< 10 &#937;/&#9633; &#61672;Randomized mesh design (one method of eliminating moirés) &#61672;Top surface of embedded metal line is blackened & sealed &#61672;Embedded metal reduces haze and eliminates peel-off &#61672;Producing > 1.5M touch sensors per month (size not stated) &#61558;O-film’s success makes visible a developing aspect of the ITO-replacement business &#61672; A vertically-integrated sensor & module-maker is in a much better position to profit from ITO-replacements than a film-only supplier, or (even worse), an ink-only supplier

Mmm... as Walker has stated... Its no longer about the technology, its about the $$$$$. It does seem that 'others' particularly O-Film can also do thinner, lighter etc & is why Carclo mentioned the Chinese in the last profit warning. O-Film is undoubtedly who they were referring to. IMO today's wee uptick is all about tomorrow's presentation & hope that something good will be mentioned. I hope so too... but beware the disappointment if there isn't! Walker is losing is touch (pun intened!) he has certainly dropped off on what he said about UniPixel... he sings the praises of UniPixel & thinks they are producing.... Not true! They STILL have not yet been able to go roll to roll & can only produce laboratory screens. Carclo are still the only producer of copper melal mesh on the planet UNLESS O-Film's direct printing method (as opposed to CAR's photolitho method) is also a copper mesh. Methinks its silver but dunno for sure. However Walker is quite correct about direct printing... it wins all hands down... .litho can't even hope to compete on costs with that! The thing about curved touch screens is what benefit does a tablet type device have if its curved? Conceivably there is a benefit to a smartphone being slightly curved, but what use for a tablet ? Also thin or NO bezels. You need a bezel of some discription for a tablet in order to hold the thing without false touch gestures. Again, ok in a mobile phone cos we hold it by the edge of the back case. In all these devices you have to also consider the other elements & parts which go into them. No- one has yet made an LED display panel thats flexible but it would HAVE to be if the top glass is going to bend! The time we can fold up a tablet & stick in a pocket is many years away yet! Pre- curved smartphones with zero bezels is the next step IMO & we need a smartphone win! The BIG question now is if XSense can be done in a One Glass Solution TS assembly. We shall see... but it does rather seem IMO that it is now almost entirely down to costs of production. GLA.

Reference tile No 81. Apart from O- films direct printing technology, which as Walker states will beat litho... this is what Carclo as a film only supplier are also up against;..... &#61672; A vertically-integrated sensor & module-maker is in a much better position to profit from ITO-replacements than a film-only supplier, or (even worse), an ink-only supplier. Notes, O-film are an ODM... a module assembler. There are many ODM's & virtually ALL are Asian. ELK is an ODM, they did the module work for HP. It is ONE of these type companies which as I have said previously... Atmel need to get one of them licensed for XSense production. THAT will cut the inefficient supply chain & reduce costs. Ink only supplier is a reference to Cabrios who invented & are the planets only supplier of silver nanowire ink to nanowire sensor manufacturers. They are a privately held & a loss making company.

Published June 1st. This is the complete updated & unbiased reference work for all aspects of touch technology. www.walkermobile.com/Touch_Technologies_Tutorial_Latest_Version.pdf

Good analogy Chris!!! Folk don't think it can happen but it often does. Good advice too... VERY wide open! If CAR had concentrated on developing printed electronics they could have been flying high by now. Shame they got side tracked. That is still the future tho... IF they can get past this shambles!

The r&d & production set up costs for the coated film produced for Atmel to turn into sensors is somewhere between £20/25m. That doesn't include the re-development & setup costs to turn the old Cambridge premises into a stand alone dedicated facility for FLT to be used in printed electronics, (that capex should now just have been completed) Also whatever remains of the $10m pre-payment is a liability until unwound. Capital debt is around £18.5m. The pension deficit is £6.5m. The bank/credit facilties are £29.5m. I don't suggest write downs are imminent but if XSense is a busted flush OR even THOUGHT to be a busted flush... then no-matter how well the other divisions are doing the possibilities of a write downs will loom large & IMO the sp will fall to break up value, (probably around 80p IMO) The only patents that are worth anything is the SUBTRACTIVE process, not the so called 'secret source'. It is THAT which is the expensive 'bit'. O-film look to have found away to a mechanical direct print ADDITIVE process producing a 2micron line width. That is similar to what UNXL/Kodak are aiming at. Its a far cheaper & faster printing process than subtractive. The subtractive patents may well be worthless. In the second profit warning & remember they come in threes... with the last one due to accounting pratices being skewed to 'potentail rather than reality!!!! ... Carclo didn't just talk about reduced revenues... they said reduced margins! I doubt Atmel are keeping them high now. There own capex for XSense was $17m.... they need some wins too! The Asians have knocked 50% off their prices, Atmel will have had to compete with that & yet still no other sales at the mo! We shall see... but I would strongly suggest at least wait til 10/6 before making any new investment decisions. I still think a rights issue is at least a possibility... but there will be plenty of time to catch a rising tide afterwards if there's gonna be one!

Geoff Walker is Intel's Senior Touch Technologist... this his his latest tutorial on competing touch solutions. Note what he has to say about what he calls the 800 pound gorilla! O-Film's 2 micron direct additive printing process is not good news for XSense or any other solution... but details are sketchy at the moment. Size of screen not stated! http://www.walkermobile.com/KDC_2014_Touch_&_UI_Trends.pdf Also coming up on the outside but not yet roll to roll... a half of one micron line width! http://www.rolith.com/applications/transparent-conductive-electrodes

The flaw in any argument at the moment is no-one knows if XSense will gain sufficient further traction & so avoid the £20-25m write downs in capex which will have to happen if it doesn't. THAT is the elephant in the room! Atmel's PLAN was to provide production capacity to support $100m revenue for this year... that was supposed to be in place by the end 2013... that plan got called off due to lack of traction & consequently we had the February profit warning. By the start of May no advancement had been made. We are rapidly approaching the design cycle half year point. Atmel's XSense progs are at the 'win or lose stage' because it is now decision time for the OEM's to arrange their production schedules for the next big autumn & pre-Xmas selling season. There HAS to at least be an indication VERY soon that further traction HAS now been gained or Carclo have got some serious problems to sort which will have a major impact on ANY forecasts & profits for the rest of the company for several years ahead. XSense is only touted as being good for up to 17&1/2 inch screens... not tv's. The rest of the company is growing but its essentially a high volume, low margin plastic moulding business operating in niche markets. LED for supercars is a small niche type market & optics & photovoltaics are hugely congested markets with many Asian competitors. Printed electronics WILL grow slowly IMO & is the reason I hold Carclo, if FLT can be used in the manufacturing industry for normal PCB's & the like it will have a far better future than the flash in the pan touch screen technology that will always be at the mercy of the next big beast to come & play. The medical trials may come to something but far to soon tell. Trials & approvals in the medical markets can take years! XSense has got the potential to do untold good but also untold harm! We should soon know which.

Extract from the 1/5 RNS; Note; Very thin cover glass has been a PROBLEM for ITO technology but it is NOT an issue for XSense! Corning recently announced they are collaborating with Atmel to develop ultra-thin capacitive touchscreens with superior multi-touch performance for next-generation applications. This collaboration combines XSense flexible touch sensors with 0.4mm damage-resistant Corning® Gorilla® Glass. Very thin cover glass has been a problem for ITO technology but it is not an issue for XSense. Together, Corning and Atmel are able to deliver outstanding capacitive touch performance through thin, flat or curved cover glass."

Remember it was Corning who did the press release about the collaboration, not Atmel. IMO only Corning would not have gone public & said there would be a sample on show at Computex ( so soon after actually going public) if they were not already good to go. No way would they have gone public if there were still any doubts or issues with the collaboration or the technology. That points to the fact that the so called collaboration has been in existence & under R&D for quite sometime BEFORE that public announcement! Also in order to to develope it they MUST have involved at least one device OEM. ALSO remember that Microsoft... by virtue of the Windows 8.1 certification process... get to see any new tech screen ideas well before any other OEM. That puts them in the prime position for first picks! Fingers crossed!

Iv'e received an email from a tech site reporter. The only thing Microsoft will say is the the Pro 3 TS was achieved with a ZERO air gap. That has only ever been acheivable in mobile smartphones to date... due to SNR issues. That confirms its a OGS (One Glass Solution) TS assembly. Unless O-film (& it will only be them) have come up with something very unusual... that screen is copper XSense with Corning's thin glass IMO. We shall see!

gocarclo... My problem is THAT 2 layer 0.75mm touch assembly being used in a 12 inch screen. It HAS to be OGS & the cover HAS to be no thicker than Corning's 0.4mm thin glass in order to BE that thin. It CANNOT be otherwise in THAT size screen without there being serious SNR issues UNLESS its XSense or some other technology that no- one has yet heard of. ALL other competing solutions including ITO have either SNR issues or optical/haze issues. Thin ITO film has both in addition to to poor sheet resistance. Microsoft are not going to release their flagship device with problems showing on the display. To reduce ITO's SNR you have to INCREASE the cover, the only way to reduce SNR is to screen the conductor which makes the cover LARGER not thinner. That's why your tv arial cable has an outer metallic mesh. It SCREENS your tv signal from outside interference which would appear as visual 'noise' on your tv. OGS is FINE for ITO film or silver nanowire in smartphone size screens but it is NOT fine for larger screens. This report out today says it all... OGS with thin ITO film OR silver nanowire is for SMALL screens ONLY and EVEN then only suitable for entry to mid range level markets in China & developing markets. THAT is because it is a poor solution when used with ITO or one of the silver solutions. Digitimes Research: Touch panel makers in Greater China focused on thin-film and OGS products in 2014 Jen-Chieh Yang, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei [Thursday 29 May 2014] Touch panel makers in Greater China are focused on thin-film and OGS products in 2014, according to Digitimes Research. TPK is currently focused on the production of nano silverwire touch technology for use in entry-level smartphones in China while GIS is developing similar technology for Nokia. Additionally, Young Fast Optoelectronics is now focusing on OGS solutions after struggling with G1F advancements in the market. O-Film and Truly Optoelectronics meanwhile are focusing on both thin-film and OGS solutions to meet entry-level and mid-range smartphone demand in China. OGS and thin-film solutions are used for thin-type smartphones, which shows that market demand in 2014 is all pointing towards lighter and thinner solutions, added Digitimes Research.

"A sample device that pairs Atmel XSense® flexible touch sensors with 0.4mm Gorilla Glass will be on display at Computex Taipei in Taiwan, June 3-7". The Computex show is the biggest tech show in Asia. At the same time (June 4) Atmel wil be presenting at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2014 Global Technology Conference. Speaker: Steve Skaggs, SVP & CFO Location: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel. It will be live webcast. These presentations are not normally used to make any new device release announcements, but if Steve Skaggs again mentions the 3 HP devices (which he most certainly will do) without also at least giving an indication that another Tier one PO has been received, then (due to that 2 layer 0.75mm screen in the 12 inch Pro 3) we may not have to wait til June 10th... if there is no indication of anything then it is IMO quite likely that further declines in Carclo's sp may be seen. No news will be seen as bad news.