LG Philips designs oil-and-water flexi-display
updated 02:50 pm EDT, Mon July 30, 2007
Oil-and-water display
The joint venture of LG Philips LCD has created a new flexible display technology which may circumvent some of the costs of current OLED screens. According to an application filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, instead of relying on crystals and diodes, the LG Philips solution fills each pixel with a combination of oil and water. When an electric field is applied from plastic electrodes, the floating oil parts, revealing the color(s) of the underlying layer.
The inherent advantage to this is the low temperatures needed to produce the displays, eliminating a costly intermediary step attached to the creation of OLEDs. The difficulty is that OLEDs must be made with a hotter temperature than that of the plastic substrate, requiring the production of part of the display on glass before a final transfer. Oil-and-water screens may not only eliminate this unnecessary expense, but reduce the probability of defects, generating greater yields at a lower cost to buyers. [via NewScientist; image courtesy of Engadget]
