LG.Philips unleashes world's first "paper-thin" color display

LG.Philips LCD, one of the world's top producers of thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs), announced on Sunday that it has developed the world's first 14.1-inch electronic paper (e-paper) display that is as flexible as paper, a second breakthrough in e-paper for the company, which introduced the world's first 14.1-inch black and white flexible e-paper display in May 2006.

The e-paper, which measures 14.1 inches (35.9 centimetres) across its diagonal and is just 300 micrometres (0.3 millimetres) thin, is being touted as the next generation in display technology.

The paper-thin and bendable viewing panel can display up to 4,096 colours by using an electronic ink from US-based E Ink, and can be viewed from a full 180 degrees, the world's second largest liquid crystal display maker said in a statement.

Instead of glass, the display uses electronic circuits formed on a thin metal panel, and can be bended or even rolled up like paper. Like the black and white flexible display, the color version uses a substrate that arranges Thin-Film Transistors (TFT) on metal foil rather than glass, allowing it to recover its basic shape after being bent.

The screen does not disappear even when the power is off, the company said.

"We've paved the way in leading the flexible display market by developing the world's fist colored e-paper," Chung In-jae, chief technology officer and executive vice-president, said in the statement. "This represents the next generation in display technology."

The so called e-paper panel is designed to be energy-efficient, only using power when the image changes on the display. Images when viewed on this paper-thin panel always appear to be sharp, even when the display is bent.

The color version's potential applications are fabulous and will enable “our customers to create new products that are not only convenient to use but also save natural resources", Chung In-Jae added.

Several other companies in Korea and abroad have been working in this field. Prime View International (PVI), a Taiwan-based small- to medium-size panel maker, last week introduced Vizplex, a new electronic paper (e-paper) technology co-developed with E Ink and said it is ready to produce products using the technology.

PVI said it will provide the wider applications with 1.9-, 5-, 6-, 8- and 9.7-inch e-paper displays, which are scheduled to debut in the summer of 2007.

Applications that PVI will offer include handheld devices such as mobile phones, digital music players, as well as computer peripherals, bulletin boards and electronic dictionaries, the maker said.

Japan’s Seiko Epson, last year in June, announced the development of 0.47-millimeter-thick, A6-size (7.1-inch) sheet of e-paper that sports an impressive 2,048 x 1,536 pixels (QXGA) and a maximum drive voltage of six volts.

The screen that was announced at the Society for Information Display's (SID) 2006 international symposium in San Francisco, is approximately the same size as an A6 piece of paper (105 millimeters by 148mm) and uses SUFTLA (surface-free technology by laser annealing) technique, combined with electrophoretic technology from E-Ink.

LG.Philips said it developed the world's first 25.65cm flexible black-and-white e-paper in October 2005 and a 35.8cm follow-up in May 2006, which matches the most common copy size.

LG.Philips LCD Co., Ltd. is a leading manufacturer and supplier of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels. The Company manufactures TFT-LCD panels in a wide range of sizes and specifications for use in TVs, monitors, notebook PCs, and various applications.

With approximately 23,000 employees globally, LG.Philips LCD currently operates seven fabrication facilities and four back-end assembly facilities in Korea, China and Poland. It also has representative offices in ten countries.

According to a forecast by market researcher Displaybank, the market for flexible displays will grow to US$5.9 billion by 2010.