Unidym and Guardian Industries Form Partnership to Develop and Commercialize Carbon Coated Glass Products

Unidym, a majority owned subsidiary of Arrowhead Research, announced today that it has entered an agreement with global glass manufacturer Guardian Industries to develop and commercialize carbon coated glass products for touch screen devices and other applications. Guardian is one of the world's largest manufacturers of float glass and fabricated glass products for automotive and building materials businesses and is active in providing glass solutions for solar energy and electronics applications.

Under the agreement, Guardian will fund a joint development effort to optimize and scale carbon coated glass products. The companies initially plan to jointly market the coated glass products to customers in the touch panel industry. In the manufacturing phase, Unidym plans to supply electronic inks to Guardian for the manufacture of coated glass.

"To date, our manufacturing and marketing efforts in the touch panel industry have focused on carbon films on plastic to replace Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) on plastic in touch panels," explained Mark Tilley, President and CEO of Unidym. "We expect this partnership with Guardian will allow us to use our technology to replace ITO on glass products in the touch panel industry. We also hope to work with Guardian to introduce carbon coated glass products in other industries, including the photovoltaic, automotive, and building materials industries."

"Guardian's partnership with Unidym presents an exciting opportunity to pioneer the commercialization of CNT coatings on glass, combining strengths of both companies," said Jim St. Jean, electronics segment marketing director for Guardian. "Our collaboration is expected to set a new standard for low ohm Transmissive Conductive Coatings (TCC) on glass that form the backbone of touch panel and other electronic products. This new class of TCC glass products will serve to complement other glass and coated glass products in the pipeline for the electronics and solar markets."