Flexible OLEDs Spring Closer to Market

Today seems to be the day for new display news. The Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University (the fightin’ aardvarks! …or cacti …or something. I don’t know college sports) has announced a breakthrough that brings flexible OLED (organic light emitting diode) screens closer to mass market. Something to do with a whole bunch of abbreviations coming together.

TEMPE, Ariz. — June 1, 2009 – The Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University and Universal Display Corporation (NASDAQ: PANL), today introduced the first a-Si:H active matrix flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display to be manufactured directly on DuPont Teijin’s polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate. Implementing Universal Display Corporation’s phosphorescent organic light-emitting diode (PHOLED) technology and materials and the FDC’s proprietary bond-debond manufacturing technology, the 4.1-inch monochrome quarter video graphics array (QVGA) display represents a significant milestone towards achieving a manufacturable solution for flexible OLEDs.

Yeah, I don’t know what all that means either, but the bottom line is we can look forward to displays wrapped around our arms, tablets that can curl so they can stand on their own, extremely energy efficient displays, and all sorts of more paper-like ways to work with our data in a future nearer than expected. Combined with their previous announcements of indestructible screens and integration with pen input, this is really exciting stuff for tablet technology.

Via Gizmodo