European ROLLED project promises to print OLEDs on the cheap

Printed and flexible OLEDs aren't exactly uncharted territory, but a group of European organizations led by Finland's VTT Technical Research Center look to be taking things a bit further than most, and they're saying their material could eventually be cheap enough to be used in everything from product packaging to business cards. Helping things on that front is the use of regular roll-to-roll printing technology, which both lowers the cost of manufacturing the material and speeds up the production. The resulting material, which is still a tad mysterious, is apparently about as thick as three of four sheets of paper, and consists of organic sensors encapsulated in a moisture barrier film. According to the researchers, it could also be attached to sensors to measure the freshness of food contained in the packaging, or even be used as a copy protection measure. If all goes as planned, the researchers say the material could be put to commercial use in a "couple of years," and cost just a few cents for some applications.

[ Via: OLED-Display.net ]
[ Tag: flexible oled, FlexibleOled, oled, printed oled, PrintedOled, rollled, VTT ]

Shinoda's 125-inch curved plasma to hit assembly lines by May, all 7.9-pounds of it

As showcase displays push to 150-inches and beyond, we won't blame you if you missed Shinoda's surprisingly lightweight (7.9-pounds) 125-inch curved plasma when it was first unveiled back in May. Especially since it manages a rather paltry 960 x 360 pixels from that trio of joined, 1-meter wide (1-mm thin!) flexible plasma panels. The fact that it's going production in April/May of next year is certainly notable, even if the first applications will be limited to digital signage. Baby steps, right?

[ Via: Engadget ]
[ Tag: curved, curved display, CurvedDisplay, plasma, shinoda, shinoda plasma, ShinodaPlasma, signage ]

Epson Imaging Devices introduce a-TFT displays that play well in sunlight or darkness

Epson's developed two transflective amorphous silicon TFT (a-TFT) LCDs for high visibility in a variety of situations on mobile devices. The screens seem to have been developed mostly for gadgets which are used outdoors and in direct sunlight. These new LCDs employ a more traditional, transmissive mode, using backlighting in darker or indoor settings, but are also capable of utilizing a reflective mode, which can harness bright sources such as sunlight to increase clarity. The reflective mode not only increases visibility on the screen, but also reduces the need for backlighting, thus conserving power. The displays will be available in 3 and 3.5-inch sizes, and samples of the screens are said to be shipping before the end of the month.

[ Via: Engadget ]
[ Tag: epson, epson a tft, EpsonATft, lcd, photo fine, photo fine hr, PhotoFine, PhotoFineHr, reflective lcd, ReflectiveLcd, tft, tftlcd, transflective ]

Samsung titillates with transparent and 0.05mm 'flapping' OLED panels

Samsung's all up in Sony's OLED space this morning at the FPD International 2008 show. They started by trotting out that 40-inch OLED TV again, with a Full HD resolution, 8.9-mm depth, and contrast ratio so high they just call it 1,000,000:1. Then they upped the ante while dialing down the dimensions to a 4-inch, ultra-thin 0.05-mm OLED (pictured above) with 480 x 272 pixel resolution, 100,000:1 contrast, 200cd/m2 brightness -- so thin that it was displayed flapping in the wind. Take that Sony and your 0.3-mm OLED chubster. Sammy then reached deep into its bag of tricks with a transparent AMOLED display (first hinted at around these parts in early 2006) with an appropriately clad model presumably meant to invoke your pubescent fantasies of x-ray vision. Or maybe that's just us. Click through to see what we mean.

[ Via: OLED-Display ]
[ Tag: 0.05mm, 8.9mm, amoled, fpd, fpd international, fpd international 2008, FpdInternational, FpdInternational2008, oled, samsung, thin, transparent ]

E Ink's AM300 developer's kit gets shown off on video

E Ink's AM300 developer's kit (made with the help of Epson) certainly seemed impressive enough when it was first announced, but there's nothing quite like a video to bring our newspapers of the future to life, and one courtesy of E Ink itself has now thankfully turned up on YouTube. While the display's 16 levels of gray and pen-based input capabilities aren't entirely unique to E Ink, its ability to display speedy animation does seem to be a step above most other similar displays and, naturally, it's being touted as ideal for advertisements. Head on past the break to check it out for yourself.

[ Via: Engadget ]
[ Tag: am300, e ink, e paper, EInk, electronic newspaper, ElectronicNewspaper, EPaper, epson ]

AUO debuts 15-inch multi-touch panel, screens aplenty

AUO is never one to rest on its laurels when it comes to displays of all shapes and sizes and, if its latest batch is any indication, it looks like it's not showing any signs of letting up. One of the stand-outs here is a 15-inch multi-touch panel which, like the company's 8-inch model, has all the necessary multi-touch technology built onto the panel itself, and is able to recognize light pens in addition to fingers (it's also rolled out new 4.3-inch and 12.1-inch models for good measure). As if that wasn't enough, AUO has also taken the wraps off a new borderless 2.2-inch display (pictured above), which it hopes will soon find its way into a whole host of cellphones and portable media players, as well as 2.8-inch display that can also double as a fingerprint scanner, a 24-inch LCD that promises to display 3D images without glasses, a slightly larger 8.9-inch version of its curved display and, lastly, a 6.5-inch 800 x 480 display with a 2,000:1 contrast ratio. No word of any actual products set to use the displays, of course, but they'll apparently all be on display at the FPD International Forum in Yokohama, Japan later this week.

[ Via: Electronista ]
[ Tag: auo, curved display, CurvedDisplay, fingerprint scanner, FingerprintScanner, lcd, multi-touch ]

New Kodak OLED material promises longer life, better colors

Kodak has already managed to impress with its use of existing OLED technology, but it looks like the company isn't about to rest on its laurels, and it's now promising that a new OLED material it has developed will make future products even better and more OLED-y. The key to that material, dubbed EK-GD403, is its used of so-called "green dopant" technology which, when used in combination with Kodak's equally mysterious EK-BH109 OLED material, apparently allows for luminous efficiencies greater than 31 cd/A and lifetimes "in excess of 65,000 hours," among other OLED-improving measures. Of course, there's no indication just yet as to when that material may show up in some actual products but, from the sound of things, it doesn't seem like something that's years away.

[ Via: Engadget ]
[ Tag: ek-gd403, green dopant, GreenDopant, kodak, oled ]