We’ve already seen the promise of flexible displays in devices such as the LG G Flex and Samsung Galaxy Round. LG Display today unveiled two new panels that give us an even better sense of where display technology is going in the next few years. One is a flexible display while the other is a transparent one.
The new 18-inch rollable OLED display panel takes flexible to a whole new level. It can be rolled up to a radius of 3cm without affecting the function of the display. It currently supports a resolution of 1200 by 810 pixels, good enough for HD although not quite the 4K that we’re starting to see in our TVs. LG expects that it could lead to 50-inch and larger televisions that can easily be rolled up within a few years.
The panel uses a “high molecular substance-based polyimide film as the backplane of the flexible panel.” This gives it a curvature radius of 30R and reduces the thickness of the panel to increase its flexibility.
LG calls the second display it announced today a transparent OLED panel but it’s more like a semi-opaque one. Its 30 percent transmittance allows you to see both through the display as well as the image it displays. In comparison, LG DIsplays claims that to date to such panels have a transmittance of only 10 percent.
“LG Display pioneered the OLED TV market and is now leading the next-generation applied OLED technology. We are confident that by 2017, we will successfully develop an Ultra HD flexible and transparent OLED panel of more than 60 inches, which will have transmittance of more than 40 percent and a curvature radius of 100R, thereby leading the future display market.” said In-Byung Kang, Senior Vice President and Head of the R&D Center at LG Display.
While neither display technology is currently aimed at mobile technology, you know that LG is already thinking about how to make these displays smaller for use in mobile devices (that or our smartphones will boast 18-inch displays by then at the rate they’re growing).
Source : LG Display