Flexible displays are essentially very thin display screens that can be printed onto flexible or stretchable material and then attached to other surfaces or produced in a variety of shapes

1. ALWIN POULOSE
Msc.Electronics

2. History of display technology
1.Monochrome CRT(1922) 2.Split-Flap Display(1957)
3.Flip-Disc Display(1961) 4.Monochrome Plasma Display(1964)

3. 7.LED Display(1968)
5.Vacuum Fluorescent Display(1967)
6.Direct-View Bistable Storage
Tube(1968)
8.Twisted Nematic Field Effect
LCD(1972)

4. 9.Super-Twisted Nematic Display(1984) 10.Thin Film Transistor LCD(1986)
11.Full-Color Plasma Display (1995) 12.Active-Matrix OLED (2003)

5. 13.Organic LED (2003)
14.Electronic Paper Display (2004)
15.Flexible Display

6. What is a flexible display?
Flexible displays are essentially very thin
display screens that can be printed onto
flexible or stretchable material and then
attached to other surfaces or produced in
a variety of shapes.

7. Flexible Display
 As the name indicates flexible displays
are flexible unlike conventional displays.
 Flexible displays opens the possibility of
more than one input method other than
touch - stress or strain applied on the
unit.
 Flexible display technologies opened up
the possibility of low cost manufacture
and offers new and emerging
applications.

8.  Flexible displays are thin as human hair
 Ultimate flexible display is a combination of TFT-
LCD and OLED techniques— with advances
developed in various fields such as processing,
component, and materials
 Flexible display provides the following functions
1.Intensity and resolution enhancement of sub-
region of display wall
2.Information augmentation
3.Stepping user interfaces for its viewers
interfacing with display wall

9. History
1970 Electronic paper first developed at Xerox's
Palo Alto Research Center
1990 Printing of OLED on flexible substrate
discovered
2000 World's first flexible display using electronic
ink from E Ink Corporation
2002 Philips finds way to 'paint' LCD screens
2007 First production-ready flexible display manufacturing
method developed by FlexiDis, a European-
Commission funded technology project
2008 Hewlett-Packard and Arizona State University introduce a prototype of a
paper-like, flexible computer display made almost entirely of plastic

10. Current status
 There is a considerable research
 Most of technologies are still in
development and available in form of
prototypes
 The Flexible Display Center, at Arizona
State University: flexible displays ready
for test trials in approximately 3 years.
 Currently E Ink one of most popular
technologies available for commercial
use

11. Flexible displays roadmap

12. Flexible displays market - demand forecasts
Source: Displaybank, 'Flexible Display Technology and Market (2007~2017)' report

13. Flexible Display Substrate
 Substrate is critical to flexible displays
development
 Different types of materials are under
investigation, including glass, plastic, polymer
films, and metallic foils
 Must be readily bendable and roll able
 Must accommodate different types of display
technologies at high levels of brightness,
contrast ratios, and resolution
 Must offer low power dissipation
 should be able to provide full- color capability
to enhance their market acceptability

14. Advantages Flexible Display
 Low-power consumption
 High-contrast ratio
 Lightweight
 Rugged
 Conformal
 Roll able
 Unbreakable
 low cost production
 Flexible display offers new and emerging applications

15. Main flexible display technologies
 Flexible LCDs
 FOLED
 Flexible AMOLED
 Electronic paper
 Electrowetting Displays (EWD)
 Electrochromic Displays

16. Flexible LCDs
LCDs are most likely to succeed in large-scale, cost-effective flexible displays

17. FOLED
 Organic light emitting device (OLED) built on a
flexible base material, such as clear plastic film or
reflective metal foil, instead of the usual glass base.
 Developed by Universal Display Coporation
 Brighter than LCDs
 Wider viewing angles and faster response times
 More durable, safer and impact resistant
 Don't need a backlighting source
 Cost-effective
 Require a strong barrier against moisture
 Limited lifetime particularly for the blue color

18. Flexible AMOLED
 Enables a lighter and thinner display.
 High refresh rate.
 Rugged and not prone to breakage.
 Consume significantly less power.
 Large area displays can be made cheaply because of
the low temperature process used and their
possible roll-to-roll manufacturing.
 Samsung is the leading developer of AMOLED
displays.
 2009 world’s first flexible AMOLED display with a
6.5‖ screen announced

19. Flexible LCD vs Flexible AMOLED

20. Electronic paper, e-paper
 A display technology designed to mimic the appearance of
ordinary ink on paper.
 More comfortable to read than conventional displays due
to stable image.
 Long lifetime: It can be updated up to 1 million times.
 Flexible and durable.
 Impact resistant.
 Image retain without power.
 Reflects light like ordinary paper
 Extremely thin
 High contrast
 Wide view angle: almost 180 degree

21. Electro wetting Display (EWD)
 Developed and patented by Dutch company
called Liquavista.
 Merges the advantages of LCDs and e-ink displays
 Uses a process called electro wetting , which uses
small electrical charges to move colored oil within
each pixel
 Electrowetting is a proven process, used for focus
mechanisms in cameras and cell phones.
 Fundamentally brighter, more colourful displays.
 Simplified LCD-like manufacturing process.
 Initially targeted at e-reader markets followed by
mobile phones

22. Electrochromic Displays
 Display consists of a layer of electro chromic material
sandwiched between two electrode layers.
 Material changes from one colour to another when stimulated
by an electric current. The top electrode layer is made from
transparent plastic.
 The electro chromic mixture used by Siemens, which enables
the screen to work so rapidly, include conductive polymers such
as poly aniline
 The display is controlled by a printed circuit and can be
powered by a very thin printable battery or a photovoltaic cell.
 The goal is to be able to create the entire device― the display
and its power source – using the same printing method, so that
manufacturing costs would be as low as possible.

23.  Application Areas
 Newspapers
 E-books
 Digital signage
 Medical
 Toys and games
 Clothing
 TVs
 Tablets
 Interior design
 Smart cards
 Automotive consoles
 Mobile
 Military equipment

24. Opportunity with Flexible Electronics
Paper-like Speaker
(Consumer application)
Flexible lighting
(Decoration application)
Printed Electronics Device
(Antenna, Circuit)
Flexible Display
Flexible Sensor
(UI, Human-
scale application
Portable Power
(Flexible, thin embedded application)
Flexible
Electronics

25. Conclusion
 There are strong research and development efforts in
the area of flexible displays and electronics
 Flexible displays and electronics are of interests to
industry because of the potential for low cost
manufacture and the opportunity to address new and
emerging markets.
 There has been increasing interest in flexible displays
and electronics

26. Questions?