Mobile Displays – Plastic Logic was in the I-Zone at Display Week showing off its latest products and updating attendees on progress (see video). Plastic Logic make organic TFTs on flexible plastic substrates. Many think this is the type of solution tat will be necessary for flexible display in the future, especially flexible OLEDs.
They have an R&D line in Cambridge UK and a pilot production line in Dresden, Germany. Novaled is also a partner for the supply of OLED materials for the frontplane. Electrophoetic front planes have also been demonstrated couple to their backplanes via a partnership with E Ink.
Rusnano, a major Russian investment company, put a lot of money into the company a few years ago with the goal of establishing a production plant in Russian to support the roll out of flexible e-readers. But when tablets can out, the bottom feel out of the e-reader market and so plans to build the fab were scrapped. However, Rusnano remains active and optimistic about prospects going forward.
Plastic Logic says they are in volume production with two products at this time. One is an ID tag using an E Ink display and the other is from Popsulate. This is a Kickstarter funded company that raised the necessary funds to start production of a smartphone with an E Ink/Plastic Logic monochrome display on the back of the phone. This will be bi-stable to maintain an image without using power.
They also showed an OLED device prototype that had some fixed patterns with limited colors (8) and pixel density (100 ppi). They are now working on an active matrix RBG OLED display. – Chris Chinnock
