Flexible Flat Panel Display Technology

The manufacturing of flat panel displays is a dynamic and continuously evolving industry. Improvements of flat panel displays are made rapidly as technology improves and new discoveries are made by display scientists and engineers. The cathode ray tube and active matrix liquid crystal display (LCD) recently celebrated their 100th and 25th anniversary, respectively. The arrival of portable electronic devices has put an increasing premium on durable, lightweight and inexpensive display components. In recent years, there has been significant research investment in the development of a flexible display technology. Figure 1.1 shows the evolution away from the bulky CRT display to the thin active matrix LCD for desktop applications, and the much anticipated paper-like flexible flat panel display of the future. To enable a flexible flat panel display, a flexible substrate must be used to replace conventional glass substrates, which can be either plastic or thin glass. Flexible flat panel display technologies offer many potential advantages, such as very thin profiles, lightweight and robust display systems, the ability to flex, curve, conform, roll, and fold a display for extreme portability, high-throughput manufacturing, wearable displays integrated in garments and textiles, and ultimate engineering design freedom (e.g. odd-shaped displays) as shown in Figure 1.2(a). Many of these potential advantages have been the principal