In the offing, paper-thin LCD screens

These screens are going to be as light as a feather with great pliable designs

Scientists have designed a paper-thin LCD screen that is light and flexible, paving the way for smart daily newspapers that could be uploaded onto the display in real time.

Researchers estimate that the technology would be cheap to produce, costing about USD 5 for a 5-inch screen.

The team focused on two key innovations for achieving highly flexible designs. The first is the recent development of optically rewritable LCDs. Like conventional LCD displays, the display is structured like a sandwich, with a liquid crystal filling between two plates.

Consequently, optically rewritable LCDs are thinner than traditional LCDs, at less than half a millimetre thick, can be made from flexible plastic, and weigh only a few grams.

“It’s only a little thicker than paper,” said Jiatong Sun, from Donghua University in China.

Optically rewritable LCDs are durable and cheap to manufacture, because of their simple structure. The running costs are low because these new LCDs do not need power to sustain an image once it is written on the screen.

The second innovation involves the spacers that create the separation of the plastic or glass plates. “We put spacers between glass layers to keep the liquid crystal layer uniform,” Sun said.

Now, their optically rewritable LCD simultaneously displays the three primary colors. They achieved this by placing a special type of liquid crystal behind the LCD, which reflected red, blue and green.