Dec 7 2005
Plastic Logic, a leading developer of plastic electronics, announced today that it has developed the world's largest flexible organic active matrix display. The display consists of a flexible, high resolution, printed active-matrix backplane driving an electronic paper frontplane from US-based E Ink Corporation. The display will be shown at the 12th International Displays Workshop in Takamatsu, Japan from December 6/9. Dr Seamus Burns, Plastic Logic’s Group Leader for Displays, will give a presentation describing the new display in the Sunport Hall Takamatsu Main Hall on Wednesday 7 December 2005 at 09.50.
The displays are 10" diagonal SVGA (600 by 800) with 100ppi resolution and 4 levels of greyscale. The thickness of the display when laminated with E Ink Imaging Film™ is less than 0.4mm. The backplane substrate is made from low temperature PET supplied by DuPont Teijin Films which is more flexible and easier to handle than alternatives such as thin glass or steel foil.
E Ink Imaging Film is an electrophoretic display material that looks like printed ink-on-paper and has been designed for use in paper-like electronic displays. Like paper, the material can be flexed and rolled. The film only consumes battery power while the image is updated.
The displays were fabricated using Plastic Logic's new 350mm by 350mm Prototype Line and its proprietary printed electronics process that is scalable for large area, high volume and low cost. Plastic Logic will partner with manufacturers to bring the process to mass production.
John Mills, VP of Engineering said "We installed our Prototype Line in just a few months using readily available production equipment. Our process lets us correct for distortion on flexible substrates in real time. The new line will be used to support technology transfer to our manufacturing partners and to create advanced product prototypes for device-makers. The rapid start-up of our new facility illustrates the simplicity of our process compared with conventional TFT technologies."
Simon Jones, VP of Business Development said, "Glass based active-matrix displays like your laptop screen are heavy and fragile. They cannot address many applications in mobile devices and retail signage where there is a strong market demand for large, thin and unbreakable screens. Plastic Logic’s approach of printing transistors on plastic is the first commercially attractive solution to meet this market need. The flexibility of the display even allows a pressure sensor to be placed under the screen to implement a touchscreen without compromising the optical performance of the display. Plastic Logic’s new capability will trigger a wave of product innovation enabled by thin and flexible plastic displays."