LG Display Reveals News-Worthy, Flexible E-Paper

LG Display revealed its new flexible e-paper display.

LG Display Co., Ltd., a leading innovator of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) technology, announced it has developed the 19-inch flexible e-paper – the world’s largest.

The 19-inch wide (250x400mm) flexible e-paper is almost as big as a page of A3-sized newspaper. Approximately eight times larger than e-books of 6-inch class, the product is optimized for an e-newspaper and able to convey the feeling of reading an actual newspaper. Additionally, as the product measures 0.3 millimeters thin, the e-paper weighs just 130 grams despite its 19-inch size.

LG Display arranged TFT on metal foil rather than glass substrate, allowing the e-paper display to recover its original shape after being bent. The use of a metal foil substrate makes the e-paper both flexible and durable while maintaining excellent display qualities. In particular, LG Display applied ‘GIP (Gate-in-Panel)’ technology which integrates the gate driver IC onto the panel. This improves flexibility by removing driver-ICs which are attached to the side of panel and hinder the bending of the display.

E-paper is being hailed as a promising new form of public display for offering various advantages compared to conventional LCD or PDP displays. E-paper faces fewer spatial constraints because of its ultra-thin and lightweight form, and reduced maintenance costs due to significantly lower power consumption. Furthermore, e-paper’s flexibility and bendiness enable a wider choice of applications like advertising signs as it can be easily wrapped around pillars and other locations.

CTO and Executive Vice President of LG Display, Dr. In Jae Chung said, “Our development of the world’s largest flexile display has opened up a new market in the next-generation display sector of e-paper. As the e-paper market is growing at a rapid pace, LG Display will continue to deliver new value to customers and the market through industry-leading technologies and differentiated products.”

Meanwhile LG Display plans to launch mass production of an 11.5-inch flexible e-paper display in the first half of 2010. According to market researcher DisplaySearch, the e-book market will grow from approximately USD370 million in 2009 to USD1.73 billion in 2011 and to USD1.73 billion in 2015.

Showing 12 comments

signalpenpals.net at 5:46am 4th February 2011 What about scrollable ePapyrus or iPapyrus, like the old papyrus scrolls ??? Take a look at the photos,,, www.signalpenpals.net/epapercomputer.htm Raimo Kaarna
boy at 5:59pm 29th January 2010 Do not blame South Korea.
Look at you guys created
Joel at 11:46am 20th January 2010 Yep! Somebody did screw up
Eric at 5:42am 20th January 2010 Last line... "USD1.73 billion in 2011 and to USD1.73 billion in 2015" Wow that's a big jump... :-P
Munky at 2:26am 20th January 2010 So the market won't grow at all from 2011 to 2015?
Kuro at 6:50pm 19th January 2010 I'd like to see a touch screen feature integrated into this. It would make it a great note taking device!
Camnio Media at 6:02pm 19th January 2010 that's just really neat
Akuta at 2:56pm 19th January 2010 You'd be surprised to know that the processors within your computer you are using RIGHT NOW are almost small enough to fit in there, and with the advancement of micro-technologies it's not unbelievable that they likely have a dispersed computing setup with perhaps several processors.
Akuta at 2:54pm 19th January 2010 Actually, flexible displays have been around for a handful of years. The smallest of them being close to (if I recall correctly) 4-5mm thick. And they work... And they've been proven to work. Your best bet would be to actually do the research yourself instead of asking a blind wall (i.e. commenting on a third party website about the product with any expectation of a response) and you'd see that these are a reality.
Jbarb at 1:36pm 19th January 2010 The screen may be .3mm thick but where does any sort of processor or memory go?
drall at 12:52pm 19th January 2010 Great so it folds? How expensive is it going to be? or Good for the environment?

After you bend this foil 3 times is it going to fall apart?

I'll believe this stuff works when I see it. I'll stick to my news *paper*
D_K_Head at 12:24pm 19th January 2010 The question is, can you still swat flies and squad bugs with it?