LG Display unveils flexible TV panel that can be rolled up to 3cm

LG Display has come up with a new flexible TV panel that people can roll up just like a newspaper.

The South Korean company on Thursday unveiled two 18-inch OLED panels — one that’s rollable and another that’s transparent. This means televisions using this type of technology can be easily hidden on home and office walls.

According to LG, the flexible panel has a high-definition class resolution of 1,200×810 with almost 1 million megapixels. And the panel can be rolled up to a radius of 3 centimeters without affecting the function of the display.

The OLED (organic light-emitting diode) technology used in the LG display screens is apparently thinner, lighter, and more flexible than conventional LCDs. And, besides being unbreakable, bendable displays can easily curve to walls or compartments.

The new transparent OLED panel is said to have a 30 percent transmittance, or clarity, which is far more than the usual 10 percent transmittance of existing transparent LCD panels, according to LG. The company also said it has significantly lowered the amount of haze in the panel.

LG isn’t the only company working on transparent and bendable displays. Samsung, Nokia, and even Apple have been working on flexible smartphone and tablet screens for years. But LG has been on the forefront of cutting-edge panel development. It debuted a flexible smartphone, the G Flex, earlier this year and unveiled a 77-inch flexible OLED TV during the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

“LG Display pioneered the OLED TV market and is now leading the next-generation applied OLED technology,” In-Byung Kang, LG Display’s senior vice president and head of the R&D Center, said in a statement. “We are confident that by 2017, we will successfully develop an Ultra HD flexible and transparent OLED panel of more than 60 inches, which will have transmittance of more than 40 percent and a curvature radius of 100R, thereby leading the future display market.”

source: Dara Kerr/CNET