It may only be 4" across (diagonally) and 320x240 pixels at the moment but this flexible transparent OLED display has massive implications for how we use and interact with technology in the future.
No more pecking away at a smartphone or trying to use a tiny keyboard and 5" screen on the latest ultra-ultra-portable device: just unroll your full size monitor and keyboard and work productively.
Want to check your email, the latest twitters, or surf CNN? easy, the monitor is on your sleeve.
Time to watch TV? just roll down the blinds on your window and the TV rolls down with it.
Troops in Iraq being able to check each others locations on an overhead map display sewn into their uniform and the nearby medic getting the same view with vital signs superimposed.
Ok, we're still a long way from anything like that but the prototype being shown off by LG and Universal Display is a big step in the right direction.
Press Release follows.
"Ewing, New Jersey--May 20, 2008 - Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ: PANL), an innovator behind today and tomorrow's displays and lighting through its Universal PHOLED™ phosphorescent OLED technology, and LG Display (NYSE: LPL, KRX: 034220), a leading innovator of thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD), announced today the joint development of a flexible, full-color, active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display prototype. Built on thin metallic foil, these prototypes are being showcased at each company's booth during the 2008 Society for Information Display Conference and Symposium at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA. LG Display (LGD) is located at Booth #519 and Universal Display is located at Booth #260.
The four-inch diagonal, QVGA full-color AMOLED display prototype combines LGD's amorphous-Silicon backplane technologies with Universal Display's OLED frontplane technologies, including its high-efficiency Universal PHOLED™ and transparent compoundcathode TOLED® technologies. Building on the foundation of the jointly-developed prototype shown at last year's SID Exhibition, this new demonstrator offers enhanced brightness, improved color saturation, broader color gamut and a one-sided electrical interconnection, making it the most advanced flexible OLED display built on metallic foil using a-Si backplane technology to date.
"Continuous collaborative efforts by UDC and LGD have resulted in another big step forward in flexible AMOLED," said In Jae Chung, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of LG Display. "Great teamwork between two companies has yielded consistent quality upgrades of flexible AMOLED in a short period and we expect more technological achievements in the future for realizing its full potential in real world applications."
"LG Display has been an excellent partner in advancing flexible AMOLEDs toward commercial practicability, and our success has been driven by strong, collaborative team work," said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display. "In just over a year, our collaboration with LGD has yielded significant gains in the design and functionality of flexible OLED displays. As we continue to work with LGD, we anticipate that our joint development will drive continued progress in flexible OLED technologies for military and commercial applications."
The development of this prototype has been, in part, supported by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Battle Command Interface Branch of the U.S. Army Communication Electronics Research and Development Engineering Center (CERDEC). This work also complements flexible display development ongoing at the U.S. Army's Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University, of which Universal Display is a founding member and LGD recently joined as an Associate member.
Flexible OLED displays are widely considered to be an important future display technology with prospective use in numerous commercial and military applications, including portable electronics, such as a wrist-mounted PDA or a roll-out display in a wireless communications device."
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