LG Display unveils world’s first high-resolution stretchable display

LG Display Co., a major South Korean display panel maker, said on Tuesday it has developed the world’s first full-color stretchable display that can be elongated, folded and even twisted.

The 12-inch display can be extended by 20% in size to a 14-inch panel while maintaining high picture quality by supporting 100 pixels per inch (PPI) resolution, the company said.

Based on a highly elastic film-type substrate made of special silicon normally used in contact lenses, the new display boasts a rubber band-like flexibility, it said.

The panel also uses 40-micrometer or smaller-size light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as the light source, helping the stretchable display maintain its high-quality images even when hit by external shocks, it said.

“The display’s free-form nature offers a cutting-edge solution surpassing the existing foldable and rollable technology,” LG said in a statement.

For enhanced durability, the new display uses flexible spring-shaped circuits instead of conventional linear-type systems to endure more than 10,000 repeated bending and folding motions, according to LG.

TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH

Industry officials said a stretchable display is considered the next-generation display panel following foldable displays and rollable displays, which LG and its crosstown rival Samsung Display Co. have already commercialized.

LG said its revolutionary panel offers next-level versatility, allowing it to be used on uneven surfaces such as skin, clothing and furniture as well as conventional consumer devices such as wearables and gaming products.

For example, stretchable displays can be utilized in special uniforms for first responders in emergencies such as accidents, disasters and medical emergencies, the company said.

The displays can also be made to have bumps that can act as buttons for the visually impaired to use on touch screens, it said.

KOREA’S NATIONAL PROJECT

The prototype LG unveiled on Tuesday is the result of its joint work with some 20 Korean research institutes under a government-initiated next-generation display panel development project that began in 2020.

The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2024.

“We will successfully complete this project to enhance the competitiveness of Korea’s display technology while continuing to lead the industry’s paradigm shift,” said Yoon Soo-young, LG Display’s chief technology officer.

Joining other big Korean companies in the race to scout young talent amid a lack of skilled employees, LG Display said in May it is setting up display convergence courses for students in master’s and doctoral programs at major Korean universities in Seoul, including Yonsei University.

In 2014, LG Display developed 18-inch transparent OLED and 18-inch rollable OLED display panels, both the world’s first, leading display form factor innovations.

In 2017, the company developed a 77-inch transparent and flexible OLED panel, also the world’s first.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.