FlexEnable of Cambridge, UK, has signed a technology transfer and license agreement with Truly Semiconductors to bring FlexEnable’s flexible organic liquid crystal display (OLCD) technology into mass production on Truly’s lines within 2018.
FlexEnable claims that OLCD is the only display technology today that can deliver flexible displays with large area, low cost and high brightness with long lifetime. With a bend radius that can go below 20 millimeters, the company believes that OLCD meets the market needs for a range of applications across consumer electronics, smart home appliances, automotive, digital signage and beyond.
OLCD is based on FlexEnable’s flexible low temperature organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) backplane technology, which can be manufactured on existing TFT LCD production lines using low cost plastic substrates such as TAC and PET. The OTFT backplane has better electrical performance than amorphous silicon, giving plastic LCDs the same display quality and reliability as glass-based LCDs, while making it thinner, lighter, shatterproof and conformable to surfaces.
Truly, the first display manufacturer to adopt OLCD, will implement the process into its existing production lines in Shanwei, China. The first product samples will be available to commercial partners in early 2018, with volume production expected in late 2018.
Analyst Comment
As we reported, FlexEnable is working with Merck on flexible LCDs. (FlexEnable Collaborates with Merck to Enable Novel Display Shapes Using Conformable Plastic LCDs) There are applications such as automotive where LCD may quailify more easily than OLED, but where the flexibility of OLED has made the idea look very attractive. (BR)
