Flexible - Page 7

Back in November 2010 we reported that Plastic Logic received a 'major' investment from Russia's RUSNANO. Today we learned that this is major indeed - the total investment will be $700 million (!) - which will be used to build a mass-production factory for thin, light and flexible plastic-based e-paper displays. Those displays will be used in Plastic Logic’s first commercial consumer electronics product, a next-generation electronic reader for business that is currently under development. This isn't the Que e-reader which was canceled in 2010.

The new factory will be built in Zelenograd, Russia, and is scheduled to begin production in 2013/2014 - and will be able to produce hundreds of thousands displays monthly. This will be Plastic Logic's second factory (the first one was opened in 2008 in Dresden, Germany). Russia hopes that this move will establish a commercial plastic electronics industry.

There are some reports that researchers from BAE Systems suggest using E Ink displays to camouflage tanks (they call it e-camouflage). The idea is that you place a flexible display on the tank and using video cameras on the back you can display what's behind the tank. If you do it all around the vehicle - it becomes sort of invisible. They say that this technology can be ready in 5 years.

This is actually an old idea. I remember there were discussions of using flexible OLED displays (and this was back in 1999 or so...).

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati have demonstrated that regular paper can be a flexible host material for Electrowetting displays. These new displays can theoretically be almost as cheap as printing a normal magazine. They say that in 3-5 years this can actually be commercialized, but these estimates are always optimistic...

The researchers say that paper is the "perfect substrate" for Electrowetting displays: it's flexible and cheap, and shows the same performance as glass.

LG Display is showing a 19" flexible E Ink display. It's only 0.601mm thick including the protective film. LG are using amorphous silicon (Si) TFTs formed on a stainless substrate. The resolution is 2560x1600 at 163ppi, it supports 16 levels of grayscale, it features 40% reflectance and the viewing angle is 140 degrees.

LG unveiled those display back in January 2010, and in August they said they plan to mass produce them "soon".

AUO is showing a new 6" flexible Oxide-TFT e-paper, made on plastic (PEN). The resolution is 800x600. Hopefully we'll have some new details and photos soon.

Update: The investment will total $700 million (!), and the new plant will go online in 2013/2014.

Russia's RUSNANO (Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies) announced a 'major' investment in Plastic Logic. Plastic Logic will create their second volume production facility (for next-generation plastic displays) in Russia. Those displays are based on E Ink, and are thin, lightweight and flexible.

Interestingly, Plastic Logic says that those displays will be used in Plastic Logic's first consumer electronics product, a next-generation electronic reader for business that is currently under development. The Que E-reader was canceled back in August, so it's good to know they are working on a new reader.

Liquavista is showing a new flexible electrowetting display prototype. They say that it's unbreakable. They wouldn't say when such displays can be commercialized though:

There are reports that Nemoptic declared bankruptcy. That's a shame, they seemed to have very interesting technology. Hopefully someone will pick it up and continue development...

Nemoptic has developed the world's first display that combines a color OLED with a monochrome Bistable Nematic LCD (Binem). The idea is that you can choose whether you want to have an OLED displays, or a e-paper like display, depending on the application and lighting condition (this somewhat reminds us of Pixel-Qi displays).

A couple of days ago we reported about a prototype flexible e-paper display that Sony demonstrated. It turns out that this wasn't actually made by Sony - it was simply loaned to them by E Ink. Sony has no current plans to commercialize such technology and use them an a product.

Update: it turns out that the display is actually made by E Ink, not by Sony.

Sony is showing a new flexible e-paper display. It has a plastic substrate, and can be rolled up like a newspaper. We don't have any technical information about the display, and when Sony expects to commercialize it...