Finnish firm Canatuis not just targeting the flexible smartphones of the future — say, rollup models that fit in you pocket and yet can be unfurled for an immersive experience — but also buttons, sliders, and rotary and other controllers we have yet to imagine. The bendability (as small as 1 mm) and stretchability (up to 120%) free the designer from flat-surface controllers.

Carbon nanobud touchscreens substitute for and improve indium tin oxide screens by being able to bend, flex, and stretch without damage.
(Source: Canatu)

“Carbon nanobuds allow controllers to be deposited on almost any 3D surface to build touch sensors into formed or back-molded plastic parts of almost any shape,” Erkki Soininen, Canatu’s VP of marketing and sales, tells EE Times.

Automotive dashboards and center consoles, consumer household appliance control panels, remote controls, smartphones and smartwatches, wearables, even industrial machinery, can all design 3D touch controllers into the desired shape of the product, rather than adapt the design to use flat controllers.

Using a standard industrial process called film insert molding (FIM), carbon nanobud touch sensors can be formed into almost any shape, from smooth, elegant domes to sharp-edged casings with violent recesses and bulges. Mechanical buttons of all kinds can be replaced with sensitive touch sensors for automotive dashboards, household appliances, and rugged equipment that must be water- and dust-proof, according to Soininen.

Carbon nanobuds combine nanotubes with fullerenes, which appear to bud off the tubes.
(Source: Canatu)

The in-mold and film-based touch sensors are also environmentally friendly when constructed, Soininen tells us, compatible with standard forming and injection molding techniques using polycarbonate substrates.

— R. Colin Johnson, Advanced Technology Editor, EE Times

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