LG planning new 60-inch flexible display; will arrive in 2017

Korea’s second-largest display panel maker, LG Display, is planning to manufacture a new 60-inch, flexible OLED display. According to a report by Korea Herald, the company was chosen by the government to lead a project to develop transparent and flexible organic light-emitting diode displays. This project is going to be a part of the Korean government’s ‘Future Flagship Program’ to promote technologies of the future. This ultra-high definition, 60-inch, flexible OLED display may take as much as five years to arrive, with the company aiming for a launch in 2017.

LG will lead a complete consortium that also includes Avaco, an equipment manufacturer for display production of flexible OLEDs. There are plenty of applications for such displays. There are chances that the transparent, flexible OLED can be used for showing information at bus stations, aquariums and even retail stores. Advertising hoardings are definitely going to be a part of the plan as well.

60-inch displays in the pipeline

The scope of this project is gargantuan. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the leader of this program, will create close to 840,000 jobs for research and development of transparent flexible displays and will achieve exports worth almost $56 billion, as an estimate, said LG Display. The government has chosen OLED as one of the key technologies they wish to develop in the near future, thereby strengthening this industry’s research and development capabilities. 

Though a display at such dimensions hasn’t really been unveiled, OLED has been in the spotlight for quite a while now. Corning had earlier introduced its new ultra-slim, flexible glass in the market as part of their slim displays and 'smart surfaces of the future' plan. The thinness, strength, and flexibility of the glass have the potential to enable displays to be “wrapped” around a device or structure. Corning Willow Glass can be processed at temperatures of up to 500° C. High temperature processing capability is essential for today’s high-end displays, and is a processing condition that cannot be supported with polymer films. Corning Willow Glass will enable the industry to pursue high-temperature, continuous roll-to-roll processes – similar to how newsprint is produced – that have been impossible until now. It will also support thinner backplanes and colour filters for both organic light emitting diodes (OLED) and liquid crystal displays (LCD) in high-performance, portable devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and notebook computers. It's being rumoured that Samsung will introduce flexible OLEDs later this year as well. With flexible displays coming into the picture, we may soon see extremely varied applications in the near future.