Morphing to glass-free OLED screens
WE RARELY see a truly remarkable new technology more than once a decade. After years of undelivered promises, such a technology looks finally set to enter the market: the flexible computer screen.
Imagine, a tablet display you can fold up and put in your pocket, a smart watch whose strap is the screen, or a handbag that is also a monitor and keyboard. Nokia called this technology “Morph” back in 2008, because of the plethora of applications it would make possible. Now it looks like it will become a reality.
After nearly two decades of work, Samsung is rumoured to be getting ready for the launch of the first flexible smartphone.
The company’s head of mobile recently said it was “time to deliver” such a phone.
But perhaps more significantly, the Samsung Display division of the company recently said it had developed an “unbreakable smartphone panel” that had passed rigorous safety testing. Even after being subjected to temperatures of 71˚C and -32˚C, and dropped from a height of 1.8 metres, the display showed no signs of damage and functioned normally.
This display is a flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel made of an unbreakable surface with a plastic overlay window attached to it, making it simultaneously lightweight and tough as glass, but a lot more robust.
If Samsung has truly found a way to protect a flexible OLED then it has removed the need for the glass screens used on most displays today.