Researchers Develop World's Most Efficient Flexible OLED Display

We saw a flexible display concept from Nokia back at Nokia World in October, and Samsung filed a patent application not too long ago that revealed the company was working on potential foldable display applications. Researchers at the University of Toronto have demonstrated that the technology is feasibly possible on a large scale. They've managed to combine OLEDs with a flexible plastic, leading to more efficient displays and a simpler manufacturing process.

Michael Helander and Zhibin Wang are PhD candidates at the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering. The prototype that they researched and engineered is a cheaper and more efficient way of creating flat panel displays, that would also benefit from increased brightness.

They came about the "happy accident" by cleaning sheets of indium tin oxide, a material used in all flat-panel displays. They discovered that the cleaned displays became brighter and used less energy after picking up chlorine from the cleaning material used. After that, the students engineered an OLED prototype display which is simpler in construction and requires less power.

Helander and Wang both believe the discovery could lead to a less fragile smartphone that requires less juice to survive the day. Whether or not we'll see this new development working its way into upcoming products remains to be seen, but it's something to look forward to. Head to the source link below for a video with a more detailed explanation of the science.

[via PhysOrg]