LG Display develops industry's most flexible display

LG Display Co., South Korea’s leading display maker under LG Electronics Inc., has developed the industry’s first display that can be stretched by 50% from its original size without image distortion, the company announced on Sunday.

This is a significant upgrade from the company’s previous stretchable display prototype unveiled in 2022.

The predecessor expanded from 12 inches to a maximum of 14 inches, offering 20% stretchability. But the latest upgrade can be stretched from 12 inches up to 18 inches, according to the company, asserting that its flexibility is the industry’s best.

The company said the newer version can be extended, folded and twisted without damaging its 100-pixels-per-inch (PPI) resolution and full-color RGB, raising expectations for its commercialization.

Stretchable displays are considered a next-generation display thanks to their free-form factor that ensures greater versatility in design and applications than foldable or rollable display technology.

They can be easily attached to curved surfaces such as skin, clothing, furniture, cars and aircraft, expanding the display's potential in industries ranging from fashion to wearables, mobility and gaming.

In early September, LG Display showcased clothing designed with stretchable displays at the 2025 S/S Seoul Fashion Week held in Seoul.

NEXT-GENERATION DISPLAY WITH GREAT VERSATILITY

LG Display markedly improved the flexibility of the latest stretchable display by enhancing its substrate, which is made of a special silicon typically used in contact lenses, and developing a new wired system, according to the company.

The new stretchable display withstood more than 10,000 repetitive stretches during testing, demonstrating incredible durability and reliability, the company said.

It uses a micro-LED light source with a pixel pitch of less than 40 micrometers (μm), providing a level of durability that can withstand significant external impacts, the company added. 

LG Display developed the stretchable display as part of Korea’s five-year national research and development project commissioned by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in 2020.

The company led the industry-academia partnership project in collaboration with 19 other institutions.

With the project completed, the company has secured a core source technology for stretchable displays.

The new display technology is expected to help LG Display transition into a high-end display producer after withdrawing from the large-size liquid crystal display (LCD) market following the sale of its large-size LCD plant in China to TCL China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co. (CSOT) in September.

LG Display will focus on premium organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels for TVs, automotive displays and IT devices.

Write to Jeong-Soo Hwang at hjs@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.