Korean manufacturer LG Electronics has created a TV screen so flexible that it can be rolled into a tube measuring just 3cm across. On Thursday the company demonstrated the world’s first rollable 18-inch flexible OLED panel as well as an 18-inch transparent OLED panel.
With TVs turning thinner these days, the new rollable factor will certainly make it more mobile and with these new panels, LG Display has already obtained fundamental technologies to precede the large-sized flexible and transparent display market.
The flexible OLED panel currently has a high-definition resolution of 1200×810, with nearly 1 million megapixels. The panel’s curvature radius is 30R, means the panel can be rolled up to 3cm without harming the display function. With this new technology, LG Display can come out with rollable TVs of more than 50 inches to the market in the future. The flexible OLED panel which LG showcased in the past was 6 inches with the curvature radius falling short of 700R.
LG Display substituted the conventional plastic backplane of a display panel with a thin high molecular substance based polyamide film to achieve the maximum curvature radius. The polyimide film also helps keep the display really thin to significantly improve its flexibility
As for the transparent OLED TV prototype, it boasts 30 percent light transmittance, as opposed to existing 10% transmittance levels on transparent LCD TV screens. This was achieved by embracing the firm’s transparent pixel design technology. LG has successfully reduced the haze of the display which is generated by using film components and circuit devices to a level of 2%. Because it is OLED, LG’s working on developing TV models that can discharge more light than ever before. In a few years the OLED TV could emit enough light to allow its owners to keep the lights off while watching their favorite movie.
With LG Display as the principal R&D entity, the transparent flexible display technology development project has been led by the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Trade and the Industry and Energy. Around 36 public and private organizations have taken part in the project.
LG Display’s SVP and head of R&D, In-Byung Kang said in a statement that by 2017 the company will have successfully developed an Ultra HD OLED panel more than 60-inches in size, which will be flexible as well as transparent.
