Chicago (IL) - Researchers from Sony and the Max Planck Institute have demonstrated a flexible display capable of holding color images. While simplistic in form, the proof of concept demo brings prmises fo the first time images shown in Minority Report. In fact, the press release issued by Sony says, "Rigid television screens, bulky laptops and still image posters are to be a thing of the past..." Is the world ready for a box of cereal whose cartoon characters sing and dance for you at the table?
The design is all organic, flexible and transparent with an extremely low energy requirement, less than 15 milliwatts per square centimeter. The response time is almost unreal compared to LCD/TFT displays at between 1 µs and 500 µs. Its viewing angle is nearly unlimited. Due to the transparency, multiple layers can be stacked (possibly for some types of 3D effects). The size is limited only by the substrate material being manufactured.
It is powered by red or IRA-A light upconversion, a process which takes photons of lesser energy, combines them into photons of higher energy (different color, such as red + IR-A becoming green or blue). Unlike LCD displays where the backlight is constantly illuminated, OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) do not require a backlight as they, themselves are the source of the light. This allows them to generate light in all directions, including behind the display where the image would appear backwards.
Research on this work was published in today's issue of the New Journal of Physics. In 2006, Sony demonstrated an earlier version of this work. However, technical, mechanical and design issues prevented them from mass producing the previous generation. According to the researchers, "To the best of our knowledge we demonstrate for the first time a versatile colour all-organic and transparent UC-display. The displays are also flexible with excellent brightness.”
The design is all organic, flexible and transparent with an extremely low energy requirement, less than 15 milliwatts per square centimeter. The response time is almost unreal compared to LCD/TFT displays at between 1 µs and 500 µs. Its viewing angle is nearly unlimited. Due to the transparency, multiple layers can be stacked (possibly for some types of 3D effects). The size is limited only by the substrate material being manufactured.
It is powered by red or IRA-A light upconversion, a process which takes photons of lesser energy, combines them into photons of higher energy (different color, such as red + IR-A becoming green or blue). Unlike LCD displays where the backlight is constantly illuminated, OLEDs (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) do not require a backlight as they, themselves are the source of the light. This allows them to generate light in all directions, including behind the display where the image would appear backwards.
Research on this work was published in today's issue of the New Journal of Physics. In 2006, Sony demonstrated an earlier version of this work. However, technical, mechanical and design issues prevented them from mass producing the previous generation. According to the researchers, "To the best of our knowledge we demonstrate for the first time a versatile colour all-organic and transparent UC-display. The displays are also flexible with excellent brightness.”