Flexible displays bend towards reality
A team of American engineers has developed a process that moves flexible self-illuminated displays a step closer to mass-manufacturing marketability. Researchers at Arizona State's Flexible Display Center (FDC) have combined a flexible polyethylene naphthalate substrate from DuPont Teijin Films with a PHOLED (phosphorescent …
"Universal Display, in fact, claims that its PHOLED technology can convert "up to 100 percent" of the power fed to it into into light, while old-style fluorescent OLEDs convert only 25 per cent into usable light."
And I'd like to point out that "only 25%" conversion is *also* "up to 100%" conversion.
<mumble> bloody PR spin-doctors
What's the minimum radius you can bend these things to? The flexible OLEDs I've seen demoed before can be flexed a bit - so you won't snap the screen if you sit on it. But there's no way you'd roll one up or fold it clean in half. Something tells me that sort of flexibility will be hard to make robust.
I can buy a device featuring a truly flexible display for a reasonable amount of money. As a long time reader of New Scientist I have been promised these displays for about the last 20 years. E ink devices were only promised for about 15 years before hitting the high street (though not for reasonable amounts of money, yet).
Oh and I want my fusion generator powered flying time machine car too please and a personal jet pack for the weekend.
