A new architecture for extendable OLED displays, based on a 3D shape that includes hidden sections that serve as both active emission areas and interconnections. This is the new idea developed in Korea, which brings these areas into position when the display is stretched, and then adds to the OLED emission area. In short, these are real hidden pixels, which are used only when the display lengthens.
The research, conducted by scholars from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and Dong-A University, Korea, and published in Nature, involved a very particular procedure to create this OLED device: the researchers essentially attached ultra-thin OLED films to a 3D rigid island structure using quadriaxial stretching, allowing for precise, deformation-free alignment. The study explains that a part of the ultra-thin OLED is hidden by making it “bend” between adjacent islands in the initial unstretched condition and that it gradually re-emerges upwards when it is stretched.
This design allows for stretchable OLED displays that perform well even after substantial deformation, corresponding to a biaxial system deformation of 30%. Researchers have built passive matrix OLED displays using this architecture, demonstrating that they are configurable to compensate for post-stretch resolution loss, and also highlighting the effectiveness of the proposed approach in realizing the full potential of stretchable OLEDs.
To date it is not clear how feasible it is for the mass production of displays of this type and therefore it is difficult to predict its use in the devices we actually use, but the design is really interesting and we would like to know from you, below in the comments, where you would like an OLED like this.
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