rollable display screens free sample

FlexEnable’s glass-free organic LCD (OLCD) delivers high-brightness, long lifetime flexible displays that are low cost and scalable to large areas, while also being thin, lightweight and shatterproof.

OLCD is a plastic display technology with full colour and video-rate capability. It enables product companies to create striking designs and realise novel use cases by merging the display into the product design rather than accommodating it by the design.

Unlike flexible OLED displays, which are predominantly adopted in flagship smartphones and smartwatches, OLCD opens up the use of flexible displays to a wider range of mass-market applications. It has several attributes that make it better suited than flexible OLED to applications across large-area consumer electronics, smart home appliances, automotive, notebooks and tablets, and digital signage.

As with glass-based LCD, the lifetime of OLCD is independent of the display brightness, because it is achieved through transmission of a separate light source (the backlight), rather than emission of its own light. For example OLCD can be made ultra-bright for viewing in daylight conditions without affecting the display lifetime – an important requirement for vehicle surface-integrated displays.

OLCD is the lowest cost flexible display technology – it is three to four times lower cost that flexible OLED today. This is because it makes use of existing display factories and supply chain and deploys a low temperature process that results in low manufacturing costs and high yield.

Unlike other flexible display approaches, OLCD is naturally scalable to large sizes. It can be made as small or as large as the manufacturing equipment used for flat panel displays allows.

The flexibility of OLCD allows an ultra-narrow bezel to be implemented by folding down the borders behind the display. This brings huge value in applications like notebooks and tablets where borderless means bigger displays for the same sized device. The bezel size allowed by OLCD is independent of the display size or resolution. In addition, OLCD can make a notebook up to 100g lighter and 0.5mm thinner.

OLCD is the key to the fabrication of ultra-high contrast dual cell displays with true pixel level dimming, offering OLED-like performance at a fraction of the cost. The extremely thin OLCD substrate brings advantages in cost, viewing angle and module thickness compared to glass displays. At the same time OLCD retains the flexibility required for applications such as surface-integrated automotive displays.

Due to its unique properties, OLCD has the potential to transform how and where displays are used in products. The videos below give a glimpse into this innovative technology.

Being completely made of plastic, Lectum® displays are much more rugged than standard glass-based EPDs. They are also thinner and lighter per square inch than conventional EPDs and are inherently low-power, which is vital in today’s increasingly mobile world.

The North America region is expected to reach USD 46.03 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 33.5% in North America flexible display market. The term "flexible display" refers to any visual output surface that is constructed to be able to withstand being folded, bent, or twisted in any direction. OLED displays are commonly used in screens that use flexible displays. Flexible displays are becoming more common in foldable technology, such as smartphones that can be folded or closed like a book.

Flexible displays are helpful because they permit the device to be stored in a smaller space, like a pocket, while also providing a screen size that is more enjoyable for the display of media. This is a useful combination. Flexible displays in mobile devices can improve multitasking. Foldable displays on smartphones may one day make it unnecessary for some people to carry around a tablet in addition to their primary device. The cache of something new and futuristic is the main draw of a folding display.

Mobile phones, PDAs and laptops, a display that is permanently conformed to fit snugly around the wrists, a kid"s mask for Halloween and other occasions & an unusually shaped display built into a steering wheel or automobile.

It is anticipated that the primary manufacturers in the market would have prospects for expansion as a result of the growing demand for flexible displays in a variety of industries, including healthcare and automotive, amongst others. The incorporation of flexible screens into the interiors of vehicles is a primary goal for car manufacturers.

In recent years, improvements in manufacturing techniques for flexible organic light emitting diodes (OLED) have led to growth in the flexible display business. It is anticipated that the market penetration of flexible glass in a variety of consumer electronics goods would increase over the course of the projection period. These desirable characteristics include mobility, low weight, lack of brittleness, and flexibility.

The technology that is utilised in the production of these displays is considered to be one of the primary benefits of flexible organic LEDs. The OLED displays have a competitive advantage thanks to the use of organic components such as phosphorescent dye and conductive polymer. They emit more light, weigh less, and offer a greater degree of flexibility in terms of how they can be integrated with other electrical devices. In addition to this, they are quite resourceful and have a low impact on the environment in terms of energy consumption.

In the past few years, the value of the OLED sector has increased rapidly; the majority of this gain can be attributed to the segment of the industry that is responsible for manufacturing smartphones. The use of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology in smartphones has become increasingly widespread because the displays it enables users to create may be folded into a more portable and manageable form when not in use.

The customer can experience a higher resolution, greater sense of immersion, and a larger field of view thanks to the use of flexible OLED displays, which are also a component in curved TVs.

When significant stress is applied to the FOLED display panels, they are also weakened. This rigorous manufacturing process may make the FOLED more prone to natural wear and tear, discouraging consumers from purchasing them for long-term utility. The repetitive folding and unfolding that occurs when using these devices adds to the burden. Other drawbacks include poor outdoor visibility, oversaturation of images, vulnerability to water-related damage, and so on.

The market for flexible displays in the North America region may be broken down into three distinct categories: the component utilised, the technology & the application.

Display technology and display manufacturing technology are the two subcategories that are included in the technology segment"s further subdivisions. OLED, E-paper, LCD, and LCOS are some of the technologies that are used in display technology. The technologies used in display manufacturing include plasma display technology as well as flat panel display technology.

Apple utilised flexible displays in order to achieve a distinct effect in their products. The iPhone X, which kicked off the trend of screens with curved corners, actually used a flexible display to accomplish this without giving up any of the screen real estate that was previously occupied by the bezels.

Visionox announced the launching of China"s first 1Hz low-power AMOLED display on February 22, 2022. This display, which utilises Hybrid-TFT technology, is capable of achieving a dynamic refresh rate of 1-120 Hz. Concurrently, mobile phones that include Visionox"s 1Hz low-power AMOLED display will also be available for purchase in the not-too-distant future.

Lenovo shows off a laptop with a rollout display while Motorola touts its rolloutsmartphone. Experts say that rollable gadgets might be a step up from the folding screens that have been popular lately.

"Rollable screens provide a larger effective screen area, providing users with more details in addition to a greater surface area, which can aid in multitasking," technology consultant and IEEE Life Fellow Tom Coughlin told Lifewire in an email interview. "Additionally, rollable screens have the potential to improve accessibility."

Motorola"s new rollable concept phone is just over 4 inches tall and retracts to a pocketable form smaller than most mobile devices on the market. "Whether it be a 6.5" screen for immersive gaming or a retracted size for on-the-go convenience, this concept provides endless opportunities for content creation and entertainment while offering newfound flexibility of a small device with a wraparound screen," the company wrote in a news release.

Nick Brill, the director of product development at hardware manufacturer VisionTek, told Lifewire in an email that rollable devices offer users larger screens in a smaller, more portable footprint.

"Many users have gone to 24-27 inch or larger screens to accompany their laptop when they are at their desk," he added. "This allows them to have a larger screen when they are on the go."

A new generation of foldable screens has also recently hit the market, with products such as the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED, allowing users to have a laptop, tablet, desktop, e-reader, and more in one package.

"For users, a foldable or rollable screen offers the ability to multitask on a full-sized display without needing additional supporting devices," Yen Hoang, a public relations manager for ASUS North America, told Lifewire in an email. "For example, the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED"s screen is 17 inches, yet it becomes compact, so it can be easily portable or used as a tablet. This new approach to computing gives users more power and flexibility to work and play in a way that suits their lifestyles."

Another new foldable is Lenovo"s new X1 Fold which the company claims is the world"s lightest 16-inch laptop. Compared to previous folding laptops in the Lenovo Fold series, the new model features a 22% larger 16-inch folding OLED display, 25% thinner chassis, and thinner bezels.

Even bigger rollables may be on the way, as Brill predicted, external monitors or laptops with a deployable larger second screen using rollable technologies. He said that laptops with a larger pop-out screen in addition to their main display would also be useful.

Samsung recently showed off an experimental rollable display, although it only shows static images, which stretches from 13" to 17". There"s even speculation that Apple will soon get into the rollable game. Apple is likely to start selling a foldable iPad in 2024, the analyst firm CCS Insight said recently. The firm said that the iPhone would probably be around $2,500.

The cost of the rumored rollable iPhone highlights the high price tag of rollable or foldable gadgets. The new ThinkPad X1 Fold is $2499, for example. But Coughlin predicted that if rollable and foldable phones and other devices catch on, their production volume would increase, and thus their cost decrease.

Also, Coughlin said, more apps will be written to take advantage of the flexible features of these device displays. The devices could evolve in new ways built around how people can use flexible displays. Flexible displays could also be incorporated into other things, such as clothing.

"Looking ahead, as this technology becomes more popular, advanced development could lead to lighter, more energy efficient, more flexible, and higher endurance display technology that could be used in other products," Coughlin added.

Imagine a device about the size of a pen that can replace your smartphone, tablet, and even your wearable devices. Hidden inside this slender canister is a large, rollable touch screen with unparalleled resolution and contrast that will let you Skype, watch movies, or map out directions, and it’s all powered by a battery that lasts for days, not hours. That might seem far-fetched, but this isn’t some futuristic prop from the set of the next Star Trek film. It’s called the Universal Communications Device, and it’s coming to a store near you in as little as five years.

The device described above is the unofficial mascot of one of today’s top companies that’s hard at work to transform our future with the displays of tomorrow, Universal Display Corporation. Known affectionately (and confusingly) as the UCD from UDC, it’s one of a plethora of new devices that will employ advanced applications of OLED display technology to, quite literally, change how we see the world.

Short for Organic Light Emitting Diode, OLED screens are often touted for their incredible picture quality, which is considered by videophiles to be superior to traditional Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs). But it’s the malleability of OLED screens that has captured the public’s attention, and will create a paradigm shift in how we use displays in the near future. That’s because OLED displays can be created not only from glass substrates (as is common right now) but also on bendable plastic materials that allow for a host of other applications.

To find out more about how and why OLED will become the dominant display technology in the coming decade, we recently spoke to Janice Mahon, who serves as VP of Technology Commercialization for Universal Display Corp.

“One of the things that sets OLED technology apart from LCD and other technologies is its intrinsic ability to be flattened and rolled,” Mahon tells us. “We’ve been focused on rollable OLEDs for over 15 years.”

If you’ve shopped for a TV or even a new Android smartphone recently, you may have seen OLED displays at work. Samsung has been using the tech to do some cool things in its smartphones lately, including the new Galaxy S6 Edge, which bends the screen around both edges. LG has taken the lead on the tech in larger displays, creating beautifully thin TVs that are in the marketplace now, as well as pulling out ultra-thin and rollable concept displays that foreshadow what’s to come.

“This technology, I believe, is really going to change how we use displays dramatically,” Mahon tells us. “We’ll see foldable displays, we’ll see smartphones that go back to clamshells opening up to a full sized screen … wearables like wrist based displays, and devices integrated into clothing, shirt cuffs, (and) backpacks. It has the potential to cross a variety of applications.”

The increasing miniaturization of technology helps to decrease the size and weight of the electronics involved in making display screens, allowing them to be placed virtually anywhere, but it also helps to create ultra-thin screens that can roll out to monster sizes — so we can have our cake and watch it too. As Mahon says, while all electronics are perpetually getting smaller, the one place we don’t want to go small is screen size.

“Companies like LG are talking about … the concept of very large area flexible based wallpaper or rollable screens,” Mahon says. Indeed, not long ago LG showed off a 55-inch OLED display that is so thin it can stick to a wall using nothing more than a magnet, as well as an 18-inch screen that can be rolled, just like the one inside the pen. And that’s just a taste of what’s around the bend.

The massive screens UDC has planned could potentially be spread throughout the home of the future, covering the walls in brilliant displays for a whole new take on the phrase “big screen.” In addition, full sized screens could potentially be rolled into a thin tube and be taken along with us, allowing for a high resolution display that we can bring anywhere, be it the office or the family cabin. And, as Mahon says, this isn’t just a pipe dream. When companies like LG and even Philips continue to talk about this kind of technological evolution, “it means that it’s going to come.”

Of course, there are challenges to be met before everyone’s toting around high-resolution screens everywhere they go: Further miniaturization of everything from electronic processing circuitry to batteries, and simple cost reduction in OLED screen production, for instance.

“One of the challenges is simply improving manufacturing techniques to reduce defects,” Mahon tells us. That’s because of the way OLEDs are commonly made right now, which involves a massive swath of substrate from which multiple displays are cut. The process makes it easy to overlook a defect or two, such as a single “point defect,” when it comes to smaller screens for mobile devices, but harder when you’re talking about a larger surface area like a big screen TV.

“Envision a large glass substrate,” Mahon says. “If you are building cellphone displays on that substrate, if you have 100 or 200 that it gets cut into, if there’s one point defect you can recover 199 cellphone displays, and only throw away one. If, on that same piece of glass, you build two TVs and you have one point defect, you may be in the position of having to throw one of your two TVs away.”

That’s part of the reason OLED displays haven’t taken over the marketplace as quickly as some would like, and it’s part of why OLED TVs are so pricey right now. LG’s flagship 4K UHD OLED, for instance, runs around $7,000 — a good deal more than what its LCD counterparts cost. However, while companies like Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung have seemingly put OLED TVs “on the backburner” as Mahon describes it, she believes Samsung’s success in creating gorgeous (and popular) OLED smartphones like the S6 Edge is a precursor of things to come.

Companies like Universal Display are working hard on reducing OLED defects, allowing production to move from small screens like smartphone displays to medium sized screens, up to massive display sizes. “We’re seeing that learning curve happen today in the glass world,” Mahon says. “I believe on flexibles, we’ll see that same learning curve happen with time.”

Another big challenge in creating the malleable displays of the future is durability. After all, it’s not exactly easy on a display to roll it into a tight spiral over and over again. However, UDC and other companies are making real progress on that front, too. Which brings us back to the magic pen, aka the Universal Communications Device.

“I kind of think about learning to crawl, then to walk, then to run that marathon,” Mahon says. “We had a shareholder meeting last week and we had a flexible display on a flexor, so it was rolling in, rolling out, etc., and it sat there for hours, but I don’t know that we’ve measured it in terms of how many zeroes of hours. But we look for that defect point, and then focus on that particular weakness.”

Working for a company that focuses primarily on OLED technology Mahon is, by definition, biased in favor of OLED over other display technologies. Still, anyone who’s seen OLEDs and all that they can do can read the writing on the wall when it comes to the fate of other display technologies, such as LED-powered Liquid Crystal Displays. When asked point blank about whether OLED will inevitably replace LCDs, Mahon didn’t hesitate for a second.

“When they finish coming up with the manufacturing development curve, and achieve the yield that LCDs have, (OLED displays) will be significantly less expensive,” Mahon says. “An LCD is a piece of glass, liquid crystals, a color filter, a backlight, and another piece of glass — so much more material intensive … building materials (for OLED) will be much lower than LCD.”

In addition, Universal Display is working on new kinds of OLED displays, such as Phosphorescent OLED technology, or PHOLEDs, that reduce the voracious power requirements of OLED displays by a factor of four. Mahon says the displays UDC is developing right now will eventually need as little as 50 percent of the power current LCD displays require, allowing for better battery optimization that will improve the overall life of our devices. And that’s just in the near term. As technology and production techniques improve, OLED is poised to completely dominate the market.

From entire walls lined with brilliant images, to tiny screens folded into our clothing, OLED is helping to make incredible strides in how we use, design, and even think about display technology in the near future and beyond. So hang on to your seats and get ready for that smartphone in your pocket to turn into a relic of the past — the OLED revolution is on our doorstep.

Computer screens use RGB, while printers use CMYK. You may ask why this matters? Most colours created in RGB can be closely matched in CMYK but some cannot. If colours are critical we always suggest ordering a printed proof.

A flexible display or rollable display is an electronic visual display which is flexible in nature, as opposed to the traditional flat screen displays used in most electronic devices.e-readers, mobile phones and other consumer electronics. Such screens can be rolled up like a scroll without the image or text being distorted.electronic ink, Gyricon, Organic LCD, and OLED.

Electronic paper displays which can be rolled up have been developed by E Ink. At CES 2006, Philips showed a rollable display prototype, with a screen capable of retaining an image for several months without electricity.pixel rollable display based on E Ink’s electrophoretic technology.flexible organic light-emitting diode displays have been demonstrated.electronic paper wristwatch. A rollable display is an important part of the development of the roll-away computer.

With the flat panel display having already been widely used more than 40 years, there have been many desired changes in the display technology, focusing on developing a lighter, thinner product that was easier to carry and store. Through the development of rollable displays in recent years, scientists and engineers agree that flexible flat panel display technology has huge market potential in the future.

Flexible electronic paper (e-paper) based displays were the first flexible displays conceptualized and prototyped. Though this form of flexible displays has a long history and were attempted by many companies, it is only recently that this technology began to see commercial implementations slated for mass production to be used in consumer electronic devices.

The concept of developing a flexible display was first put forth by Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Company). In 1974, Nicholas K. Sheridon, a PARC employee, made a major breakthrough in flexible display technology and produced the first flexible e-paper display. Dubbed Gyricon, this new display technology was designed to mimic the properties of paper, but married with the capacity to display dynamic digital images. Sheridon envisioned the advent of paperless offices and sought commercial applications for Gyricon.

In 2005, Arizona State University opened a 250,000 square foot facility dedicated to flexible display research named the ASU Flexible Display Center (FDC). ASU received $43.7 million from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) towards the development of this research facility in February 2004.demonstration later that year.Hewlett Packard demonstrated a prototype flexible e-paper from the Flexible Display Center at the university.

Between 2004–2008, ASU developed its first small-scale flexible displays.U.S. Army funds ASU’s development of the flexible display, the center’s focus is on commercial applications.

This company develops and manufactures monochrome plastic flexible displays in various sizes based on its proprietary organic thin film transistor (OTFT) technology. They have also demonstrated their ability to produce colour displays with this technology, however they are currently not capable of manufacturing them on a large scale.Dresden, Germany, which was the first factory of its kind to be built – dedicated to the high volume manufacture of organic electronics.plastic and do not contain glass. They are also lighter and thinner than glass-based displays and low-power. Applications of this flexible display technology include signage,wristwatches and wearable devices

In 2004, a team led by Prof. Roel Vertegaal at Queen"s University"s Human Media Lab in Canada developed PaperWindows,Organic User Interface. Since full-colour, US Letter-sized displays were not available at the time, PaperWindows deployed a form of active projection mapping of computer windows on real paper documents that worked together as one computer through 3D tracking. At a lecture to the Gyricon and Human-Computer Interaction teams at Xerox PARC on 4 May 2007, Prof. Vertegaal publicly introduced the term Organic User Interface (OUI) as a means of describing the implications of non-flat display technologies on user interfaces of the future: paper computers, flexible form factors for computing devices, but also encompassing rigid display objects of any shape, with wrap-around, skin-like displays. The lecture was published a year later as part of a special issue on Organic User InterfacesCommunications of the ACM. In May 2010, the Human Media Lab partnered with ASU"s Flexible Display Center to produce PaperPhone,MorePhone

Research and development into flexible OLED displays largely began in the late 2000s with the main intentions of implementing this technology in mobile devices. However, this technology has recently made an appearance, to a moderate extent, in consumer television displays as well.

Nokia first conceptualized the application of flexible OLED displays in mobile phone with the Nokia Morph concept mobile phone. Released to the press in February 2008, the Morph concept was project Nokia had co-developed with the University of Cambridge.nanotechnology, it pioneered the concept of utilizing a flexible video display in a consumer electronics device.London, alongside Nokia’s new range of Windows Phone 7 devices.

Sony Electronics expressed interest for research and development towards a flexible display video display since 2005.RIKEN (the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research), Sony promised to commercialize this technology in TVs and cellphones sometime around 2010.TFT-driven OLED display.

In January 2013, Samsung exposed its brand new, unnamed product during the company"s keynote address at CES in Las Vegas. Brian Berkeley, the senior vice president of Samsung"s display lab in San Jose, California had announced the development of flexible displays. He said "the technology will let the company"s partners make bendable, rollable, and foldable displays," and he demonstrated how the new phone can be rollable and flexible during his speech.

During Samsung"s CES 2013 keynote presentation, two prototype mobile devices codenamed "Youm" that incorporated the flexible AMOLED display technology were shown to the public.OLED screen giving this phone deeper blacks and a higher overall contrast ratio with better power efficiency than traditional LCD displays.LCD displays. Samsung stated that "Youm" panels will be seen in the market in a short time and production will commence in 2013.

The Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University announced a continued effort in forwarding flexible displays in 2012.Army Research Lab scientists, ASU announced that it has successfully manufactured the world"s largest flexible OLED display using thin-film transistor (TFTs) technology.

In January 2019, Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi showed a foldable smartphone prototype.Xiaomi demoed the device in a video on the Weibo social network. The device features a large foldable display that curves 180 degrees inwards on two sides. The tablet turns into a smartphone, with a screen diagonal of 4,5 inch, adjusting the user interface on the fly.

Flexible displays have many advantages over glass: better durability, lighter weight, thinner as plastic, and can be perfectly curved and used in many devices.glass and rollable display is that the display area of a rollable display can be bigger than the device itself; If a flexible device measuring, for example, 5 inches in diagonal and a roll of 7.5mm, it can be stored in a device smaller than the screen itself and close to 15mm in thickness.

Flexible screens can open the doors to novel and alternative authentication schemes by emphasizing the interaction between the user and the touch screen. In “Bend Passwords: Using Gestures to Authenticate on Flexible Devices,” the authors introduce a new method called Bend Passwords where users perform bending gestures and deform the touch screen to unlock the phone. Their work and research points to Bend Passwords possibly becoming a new way to keep smartphones secure alongside the popularization of flexible displays.

Flexible displays using electronic paper technology commonly use Electrophoretic or Electrowetting technologies. However, each type of flexible electronic paper vary in specification due to different implementation techniques by different companies.

The flexible electronic paper display technology co-developed by Arizona State University and HP employs a manufacturing process developed by HP Labs called Self-Aligned Imprint Lithography (SAIL).

The flexible electronic paper display announced by AUO is unique as it is the only solar powered variant. A separate rechargeable battery is also attached when solar charging is unavailable.

Many of the e-paper based flexible displays are based on OLED technology and its variants. Though this technology is relatively new in comparison with e-paper based flexible displays, implementation of OLED flexible displays saw considerable growth in the last few years.

In May 2011, Human Media Lab at Queen"s University in Canada introduced PaperPhone, the first flexible smartphone, in partnership with the Arizona State University Flexible Display Center.

At CES 2013, Samsung showcased the two handsets which incorporates AMOLED flexible display technology during its keynote presentation, the Youm and an unnamed Windows Phone 8 prototype device.Galaxy Note Edge,Samsung Galaxy S series devices.

LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics both introduced curved OLED televisions with a curved display at CES 2013 hours apart from each other.The Verge noted the subtle curve on 55" Samsung OLED TV allowed it to have a "more panoramic, more immersive viewing experience, and actually improves viewing angles from the side."

Crawford, Gregory P., ed. (2005). Flexible flat panel displays (Reprinted with corrections. ed.). Chichester, West Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons. p. 2. ISBN 978-0470870488.

Thryft, Ann R. (7 June 2012). "All-Plastic Electronics Power Flexible Color Display". Design News. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2013.

Lahey, Byron; Girouard, Audrey; Burleson, Winslow and Vertegaal, Roel (May 2011). PaperPhone: Understanding the Use of Bend Gestures in Mobile Devices with Flexible Electronic Paper Displays, Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Pages 1303–1312.

Lee, Reuben (10 January 2013). "Samsung shows off flexible display phones at CES keynote". CNET. Archived from the original on 17 February 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2013.

Sasaoka, Tatsuya; Sekiya, Mitsunobu; Yumoto, Akira; Yamada, Jiro; Hirano, Takashi; Iwase, Yuichi; Yamada, Takao; Ishibashi, Tadashi; Mori, Takao; Asano, Mitsuru; Tamura, Shinichiro; Urabe, Tetsuo (1 January 2001). "24.4L: Late-News Paper: A 13.0-inch AM-OLED Display with Top Emitting Structure and Adaptive Current Mode Programmed Pixel Circuit (TAC)". SID Symposium Digest of Technical Papers. 32 (1): 384. doi:10.1889/1.1831876. S2CID 59976823.

Drzaic, P.; Comiskey, B.; Albert, J. D.; Zhang, L.; Loxley, A.; Feeney, R.; Jacobson, J. (1 January 1998). "44.3L: A Printed and Rollable Bistable Electronic Display". SID Symposium Digest of Technical Papers. 29 (1): 1131. doi:10.1889/1.1833686. S2CID 135723096.

Lowensohn, Josh (9 January 2013). "Eyes-on: Samsung"s Youm flexible-display tech at CES 2013". CNET. Archived from the original on 26 November 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2013.

Among the various improvements that smartphones and tablets have received over the last decade, flexible displays are undoubtedly one of the most interesting propositions and one with a huge potential to change the market. The technology is still relatively new, despite several companies exploring the tech for more than a decade.

After seeing several new devices successfully integrate flexible displays with varying levels of success, it"s clear that this tech is here to stay. The only question right now is how long it will take for flexible displays to become commonplace. Let"s take a look at how modern flexible displays work and future considerations for this corner of the market.

Smartphone displays are traditionally rigid due to the glass layer used in their production. However, modern OLED-based designs have successfully removed the need for that, instead implementing the screen in a very thin layer, to the point where it becomes flexible. The screen is then covered with a thin plastic layer, which is unfortunately susceptible to scratches.

In some cases, flexible displays are just an illusion. Some devices feature two or more displays lined up next to each other, with special emphasis placed on removing the border between them. These devices are usually more versatile in terms of the kinds of upper layers they support, in some cases including a full glass cover.

Flexible displays have been around for a decade now. Initial designs were rather underwhelming—but some of them ended up being repurposed into other devices. For example, the Galaxy Note Edge"s curved screen actually started as a prototype for a flexible display device.

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a notable example of a device that incorporates a flexible display, and some claimed that it should set some new trends on the market. Unfortunately, other manufacturers haven"t tried to follow the trend, so it remains to be seen whether the idea has any true potential. The device sold well enough, which is a good sign.

And in some cases, flexible displays were used to achieve a different effect. The iPhone X, which started the trend of screens with curved corners, actually used a flexible display to accomplish that without sacrificing any real estate around the bezels.

Flexible displays remain relatively expensive compared to their regular counterparts and often sacrifice visual quality. This is especially noticeable when the screen is folded at a particular angle. At the same time, flexible screens tend to have a more limited lifetime compared to traditional ones.

For most user"s needs, current designs should be able to last a very long time. But this is still a point that needs to be addressed by most manufacturers, especially in the context of the higher prices attached to flexible display devices.

It"s also important to note that flexible displays have huge potential outside of the smartphone market. Other devices can utilize them to improve their usability. Furthermore, with wearable gadgets increasing in popularity, new gadgets coming out in the future are likely going to take advantage of this technology.

Smartwatches are a good candidate for flexible display technology. Their designers already go to great lengths to make their displays as compact as possible, and flexible displays offer some direct advantages in this regard. They tend to be thinner than traditional displays, which makes them a good fit for devices of this kind.

Then there are medical devices and other specialized use cases. Even if flexible displays don"t immediately take off, they will find a place in other areas. It will be interesting to see what kinds of changes they facilitate in other markets.

Gaming is also shaping up to be a field where these devices could have a viable place. Between virtual reality and the new features being introduced in modern consoles and their controllers, we might see some approaches that integrate flexible displays.

With all that said, the main question remains—will this eventually become a common trend on the market as a whole? As we mentioned above, there are specialized cases where bendable or flexible displays have potential.

But at the same time, it"s questionable how fast this tech will be adopted in general, depending on price, application, and other availability factors. New developments in the field have made the production process more affordable, but it will probably take a while until foldable displays establish a permanent presence on the market and become commonplace.

The most basic method of obtaining flexibility or bendability is the adoption of ultrathin materials as the TFT backplane components.2a, b. In addition, no fracture was found on the oxide semiconductor TFT regions due to the thin thickness of the backplane (~2 µm) and the improved flexibility of the TFT regions. Javey and coworkers have demonstrated a flexible display that is composed of a flexible carbon nanotube (CNT)-based backplane and flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) pixels as depicted in Fig. 2c, d (ref. 3). The flexible display was fabricated on a 24-µm-thick PI film, and the total thickness of the devices (excluding the substrate) was <2 µm. Therefore, the flexible backplane showed stable electrical characteristics even during the bending states (where the bending radius was 4.2 mm), and the OLED pixels also performed with negligible degradation from the deformations (where the bending radius was 4.7 mm). Consequently, this fabricated display also demonstrated flexibility because of the deformability of the devices.

Flexible backplane for display fabricated by a thin-film process. a Photo (left) of the TFT array sample made by graphene–AuNT hybrid electrodes on a transparent polyimide substrate. Scale bar: 1 cm. A schematic diagram (right) of the TFT layout. b Photos of the TFT arrays transferred onto: a leaf, eyeglasses, and the skin of human hand. All scale bars: 1 cm. a–b Reproduced with permission from ref. 8. Copyright 2014, American Chemical Society. c Photo (left), optical micrograph (middle), and scanning electron micrographs (right) of flexible backplane. d Photos of operating flexible display combined with backplane and OLED pixels. c–d Reproduced with permission from ref. 3. Copyright 2013, Nature Publishing Group

Flexible light sources are important parts in flexible display applications because they determine long-term stability and commercial value of practical flexible displays under continuous mechanical stress. Thus, flexible light sources should have sufficient light-emission efficiency and mechanical stability. Generally, OLEDs have been mostly spotlighted candidates for flexible light sources because OLEDs consisted of organic materials and they have outstanding mechanical flexibility compared with inorganic LEDs.

For next-generation displays, flexible and light-weight OLEDs are an appropriate candidate because of their excellent light emission, and mechanical flexibility. Currently available components of flexible OLEDs including substrates, electrodes, emissive materials and encapsulation layers, are still insufficient to achieve practical flexible OLEDs with stable performance under mechanical deformation. Consequently, achieving reliable components of flexible OLEDs such as (1) flexible substrates and encapsulation layers with good barrier properties, (2) transparent electrodes that are mechanically robust under deformation and have low sheet resistance, and (3) flexible materials that emit light efficiently, remains to be solved for commercial applications.

Recently, flexible display devices have attracted widespread attention as an alternative to rigid devices because of their portability and comfort for long time wearing. For the relevant applications, when the devices undergo mechanical deformations such as bending and stretching, the thicknesses of the constituent materials usually decreases and all layers suffer a tensile stress at the outside of each layer.

Flexible display devices contain many laminated structures composed of sub-micrometer-scale thin films. At UNIST, we evaluated the mechanical properties of one of these components using modified hole-nanoindentation. PDY-132 (Merck, Germany, commercially sold as “Super Yellow”) is a ‘‘high-performance polymer’’ that emits yellow light. In our evaluation, PDY-132 was spin-coated on a clean glass substrate. The sacrificial layer was selectively dissolved to fabricate free-standing films with the same dimensions as the actual devices. We fabricated hole-patterned Si wafers using the deep reactive ion etching method. The patterned hole size was proportional to each film thickness, so that the diameter of a hole was less than 1% of the film thickness.11. The elastic modulus of the hole-indentation was found to be 4.89 GPa, and its fracture strength was 1.19 GPa.

Uchic et al.12. Tensile testing is the most fundamental method of evaluating a material’s inherent mechanical properties, such as yield strength, strain-hardening exponent, ultimate tensile strength, etc. As mentioned above, in-situ testing enables precise observations of sample deformations in real time, with simultaneous imaging during testing. Various indenters are also expected to enable stretching and bending tests of constituent materials in flexible display devices.

Flexible display devices contain many organic materials, such as polymer films, active materials, and electrodes. However, mechanical tests of organic materials in high vacuum conditions in SEM and transmission electron microscopy are limiting in that organic materials are (in real environments) highly affected by surrounding environmental conditions such as humidity and temperature; it is important to measure mechanical properties in actual operating environments. A nano-UTM can be used to control environmental conditions using a controlled humidity chamber and heating block because the machine is based on an optical microscope, as shown in Fig. 13. Images of gauge sections during tensile tests are observed by a charge-coupled device camera in real time, and strain is analyzed from the images based on digital image correlation. Constituent materials in flexible display devices are macroscopically visible and their thicknesses are generally in the nanometer-scale range. PEDOT:PSS is widely used for organic transparent conducting electrodes, and PEDOT:PSS thin films are fabricated by natural drying after drop casting on a substrate. A tensile sample was fabricated by a mechanical press, and the gauge length and gauge width were 4 and 1 mm, respectively, as in the standard ASTM E8 test. We performed tensile tests of PEDOT:PSS in three different humidity conditions by nano-UTM, and the results are summarized in Fig. 13. The yield strengths of the samples tested in the lowest humidity environment were greater than those of other samples, and the fracture strain decreased as humidity increased.

In recent years, fingerprint mutual capacitive TSPs with flexible displays fabricated from flexible plastic materials have attracted much attention because of the development of transparent fingerprint sensors embedded in flexible displays that are also thin and impact-resistant. As security protections for electronic devices such as smart phones become increasingly important, a fingerprint sensor has been integrated on the device’s home button because the fingerprint sensor is not transparent. However, a mutual capacitive transparent fingerprint TSP must be developed on the display itself because a wearable device does not have a home button, and the screen sizes of smart devices must otherwise be enlarged.

Both the flexible fingerprint TSP and post-processing are required to capture the fingerprint image in the fingerprint TSP on the flexible display. A readout IC for the flexible fingerprint TSP is required to distinguish the atto-farad capacitance difference in the fingerprint TSP noise environment on the flexible display. Post-processing is also necessary to compensate for the load variation due to the bent or stretched display.

When the thickness of the covered glass of the flexible display is almost 0.2–0.3 mm, the mutual capacitance difference from the valley to the ridge is almost 50–150 atto-farad. As the thickness of the display panel increases, the mutual capacitance difference is reduced. The thickness of the rigid glass is larger than that of the flexible display panel, which induces a capacitance difference between the valley and the ridge of only several atto-farad.

A low-noise, low-offset, and fast-response receiver is required to acquire a fingerprint image in the mutual capacitive fingerprint TSP on the flexible display. In addition, the post-processing is also required to compensate for the load variation issues that occur because of the flexible TSP’s unique characteristics. A readout IC with high accuracy and a fast response and an effective algorithm for cancelling the offset due to the load variation are both required to achieve an effective fingerprint TSP on the flexible display.

Display products are frequently used for the purposes of task efficiency or leisure. Because long-term and/or frequent use of visual display terminals (VDT) is harmful to our health, ergonomic interventions including ergonomic displays are essential. Users of VDTs suffer from headaches, nausea, visual fatigue, and/or musculoskeletal disorders, which are comprehensively called VDT syndrome or computer vision syndrome. Recently, curved displays have been adopted as a new form of display for several types of commercialized visual display products (smartphones, smart watches, smart bands, TV, and computer monitors). Visual display products that adopt bendable, foldable, or rollable displays are expected in the near future. Existing guidelines for performing visual tasks on flat or convex displays (e.g., ISO 9241) require that characteristics of new displays be evaluated from the perspective of the health of the human user. New types of display are different from conventional displays in terms of optical characteristics, and ergonomic investigations should thus be more focused on visual perception, comfort, and fatigue, among other factors in the ergonomics field.

Visual ergonomics is one prominent research area in terms of ergonomics related to display and visual perception. Visual ergonomics is defined as the multidisciplinary science concerned with understanding human visual processes and the interactions between humans and other elements of a system. Visual ergonomics applies theories, knowledge and methods to the design and assessment of systems, optimizing human well-being and overall system performance. Relevant topics include, among others: the visual environment, such as lighting; visually demanding work and other tasks; visual function and performance; visual comfort and safety; optical corrections and other assistive tools.

New forms of display are characterized by optically different properties, which consequently affect visual perception (Fig. 17). Curved displays have been reported to have advantages

When determining ergonomic display curvatures, several factors should be considered, including the viewer, media content, task, and environment. Regarding the viewer, general characteristics of visual perception as well as age-related factors should be considered. It is also important to consider the effects of media content (static, dynamic, 2D, or three-dimensional) on the viewer’s perception and ocular health. Task duration and the work-rest schedule are also important to promote ergonomic conditions during VDT tasks. Finally, the viewing environment is important in terms of its illumination, light reflection, humidity, viewing distance, viewing angle, and lateral viewing position.

When evaluating visual displays, the following measures can be used. Many diverse subjective rating scales are available to assess perceived visual comfort or discomfort, visual fatigue, and cyber-sickness (e.g., ECQ, SSQ). In addition, the concept of presence, or immersive feeling, has become more important as an essential element of a satisfactory viewing experience through any media. Objective measures related to the viewing experience include critical fusion frequency to assess mental stress and visual fatigue, change in pupil size, and eye blink frequency and duration.

It is also important to understand how our visual perception operates to better inform our visual display designs. Related concepts include the just noticeable difference (JND), horopter, and depth perception. For example, JND values for display curvature can be used to determine a specific display curvature within the JND range, within which our perception is regarded equal. The horopter concept contributes significantly to the advantages offered by curved displays in comparison with flat displays. Horopter is “the locus of points in space which project images onto corresponding points in each retina”.

To summarize, it is necessary to consider human factors, task factors, and environmental factors all together during the display research and development process. Otherwise, the resulting visual display product may be technologically feasible, but adversely affect our health.

New York, United States, July 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global flexible display market had a market share of USD 13.34 billion in 2019, according to the new report of Straits Research. It is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 34.83% from 2022 to 2030. The global flexible display market is expected to grow owing to the rising innovations in consumer electronics and increased demand for a high-quality picture. Integrating smart sensors into residential devices has lengthened the replacement cycle for new consumer electronics. Displays are increasingly being used to control and communicate with devices.

Based on display type, OLED accounted for the largest market share of 73.65% in 2020. The OLED segment is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 35.87%, generating revenue of USD 175.95 billion by 2030.

The growing trend of smart homes and buildings and the increasing demand for connected technologies are some of the major factors driving the adoption of connected and innovative solutions across the consumer electronics sector. Effective data storage is becoming critical, with so many viewers consuming media from OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon, and others. Thus, the demand for TVs is expected to boost the flexible displays market.

Further, the growing demand for greater picture quality bolsters the demand for flexible displays. The number of 4K televisions sold has increased exponentially in recent years. According to JEITA, the number of 4K TVs shipped in Japan in 2020 will be 3.05 million, up from 2.58 million the previous year. The increase in demand is expected to be driven by the change in resolution and quality of the contents.

Lastly, more exciting and demanding technology, such as virtual reality and 4K displays, is now available. As a result, PC gamers are expected to upgrade their equipment, which is one of the factors driving sales of gaming-specific PCs and their accessories, such as gaming screens. As a result, increased need for picture quality has increased the demand for flexible displays. Report MetricDetails

Key Companies Profiled/VendorsLG Display Co. Ltd | Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd | Royole Corporation | e-ink Holdings | BOE Technology Group Co. Ltd | Guangzhou Oed Technologies Co. ltd | Flexenable | Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd |

Due to the global shutdown, production of flexible displays fell precipitously in 2020 due to the global supply chain disruption. COVID-19 had an impact on the operations of not only flexible display manufacturers but also their suppliers and distributors.

In the short term, the failure of export shipments and poor domestic semiconductor demand compared to pre-COVID-19 levels are expected to impact negatively and slightly stagnant demand for semiconductor devices, affecting the flexible display market.

As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, several major economies have been placed on lockdown. Sales of electronic products have been hampered, and supply networks have been disrupted. Furthermore, many economies are losing a significant amount of revenue due to manufacturing plant closures. As a result, the general scenario has hampered the demand for flexible displays in 2020.

Market News December 29th, 2021, LG Display, launched its newest OLED TV technology ‘OLED EX’. This next generation OLED EX display implements LG Display’s deuterium and personalized algorithm-based ‘EX-Technology’.

Ultrasound Devices Market:Information by Product Type (Diagnostic), Device Display (Color, Black), Device Portability (Trolley/Cart-Based), and Region — Forecast till 2030

Automotive Head-Up Display Market: Information by Type (Windshield, Augmented Reality HUD), Vehicle Type (Passenger Vehicles, Commercial Vehicles), End-User, and Region — Forecast Till 2029

Virtual Reality Market: Information by Device Type (Head-Mounted Display), Application (Consumer), Technology (Non-Immersive, Semi and Fully Immersive) and Region — Forecast till 2029

Due to their expanding use in flexible displays, wearable electronics, smart cards, and various other applications, flexible batteries are growing in popularity. A flexible display is also a rapidly growing technology, with applications of flexible display in areas such as media, aircraft, and transportation. Research on flexible display predicts increasing usage of this display technology in medical display systems.

The surge in demand for flexible display technology for a variety of applications such as digital signage, smartphones and tablets, and smart wearable devices is likely to drive the global flexible display market. The growing prominence of quantum dot (QD) display technology presents manufacturers with new revenue prospects and is likely to emerge as one of the important types of display technology.

Key Findings of Market ReportOver the next few years, the market is expected to be driven by the increasing use of flexible displays in different industries such as consumer electronics, automotive and transportation, media and entertainment, and aviation and military. The future of phone design with flexible display holds promise in the development of mobile devices and smart displays is also expected to propel the flexible display market during the forecast timeline. In addition to that, the global market has been propelled by increasing expenditures on the development of sophisticated displays.

Due to the surge in usage for curved displays from the consumer electronics sector for the manufacturing of TVs and smartphones, the curved display category is likely to hold a significant proportion of the market during the forecast timeframe. A flexible display is basically the same as any other display, except that it is built on a flexible substrate.

OLED is a rapidly growing category of the global flexible electronics market in terms of technology. Due to the glass layer utilized in display manufacture, smartphone screens are traditionally inflexible. However, the newest OLED-based technology has eliminated the requirement for it, substituting a thin film of flexible glass with a thin layer of OLED-based technology. The OLED display, which is constructed of organic components that generate light when power is transmitted between them, is now prominent due to its versatility.

Global Flexible Display Market: Growth DriversAutomakers are concentrating on integrating flexible screens into car interiors. Over the next several years, a substantially bigger section of a car"s interior surfaces is likely to become interactive, and the amount of space given to displays in vehicle interiors is already fast expanding.

Based on value, the Asia Pacific region held 34% of the global flexible display market in 2021. The high usage of flexible displays in consumer electronics, which represented a substantial chunk of overall consumption in Asia Pacific, was largely responsible for the considerable share. In Asia Pacific, China accounted for a sizable portion of the flexible display business.

Fine Pixel Pitch LED Displays Market- Fine Pixel Pitch LED Displays Market is expected to reach value of US$ 7.5 Bn by the end of 2031, expand at a CAGR of 17.4% from 2022 to 2031.

POP Display Market- POP Display Market is expected to surpass the value of US$ 979.2 Mn by the end of 2031, It is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 5.4% from 2022 to 2031

Display Driver IC Market- Display Driver IC Market is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 8.0% during the forecast period and reach value of US$ 6,842.2 Mn by 2027

Industrial Touchscreen Display Market- Industrial Touchscreen Display Market is anticipated to reach value of US$ 1,462.5 Mn by 2026, expanding at a significant growth rate of 6.5%.

Quantum Dot (QD) Display Market- Quantum Dot (QD) Display Market was valued at around US$ 1,176.2 Mn in 2017and is anticipated to register a stable CAGR of over 23%

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Foldable OLED displays can be bent by the user. These innovative displays enable new form factors, such as - such as phones that open into tablets, smart bands that open into smartphones and laptops with large displays. In 2019 the first foldable smartphones were launched, and after a rocky start, device markers are now introducing new devices to market as analysts expect increased adoption in the future.

In 2019 Samsung finally introduced the first device, the Galaxy Fold - which had a problematic launch. Since then Samsung followed up with several new foldable phones, for example the Galaxy Z Fold 2 which sports an internal foldable display at 7.6" 1768x2208 HDR10+ 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED and also a larger 6.23" 816x2260 Super AMOLED cover display. Samsung also launched the clamshell-style Galaxy Z Flip.

Several companies offer foldable phones besides Samsung, including Motorola, Huawei and others. Huawei for example launched the Mate X2 in 2021, which features an inside-folding AMOLED display, a 8-inch 90Hz 2480 x 2200 one. There is also an external 6.45-inch 1160 x 2700 90Hz (240Hz touch sampling rate) AMOLED display.

Foldable OLED laptops is another promising market segment. In 2021 Lenovo started shipping the $2,499 foldable ThinkPad X1 Fold laptop, with its 13.3" 2048x1536 foldable OLED display (produced by LG Display). Hopefully more companies will follow suit and we"ll see more such devices on the market soon.

If you want to learn more about the foldable OLED technology, industry and market, check out ourWhy flexible displays and lighting panels are so exciting