LG has launched an 18-inch flexible and transparent OLED panel that can be rolled up into a cylinder.
How convenient would it be to just roll up a television and carry it around without having to pack it in boxes? LG has started working with rollable OLED panels. The South Korean tech giant unveiled the 18-inch flexible display Thursday that can be rolled into a thin cylinder, paving way for the future of foldable TVs.
According to LG, the latest flexible OLED panel is in the high-definition range with a screen resolution of 1200x800 with almost 1 million mega-pixels. The images on this panel may not be as sharp as the ones in the UHD display but the flexibility and the transparency is a point of interest, ABC News reports. In a rolled-up state, the new OLED panel will have a 6 cm diameter in the rolled up state. To make the OLED panel flexible and functional, LG ditched plastic in favor of "high molecular substance-based polyimide film" in the back panel. This also helped achieve maximum curvature radius with reduced thickness.
The transparent nature of the panel is said to greatly surpass the previous models, which offered around 10 percent transparency. The new OLED panel boasts 30 percent transmittance, which helps reduce the haziness in the images. The tech giant sees this new development as a promising platform for much larger displays.
"LG Display pioneered the OLED TV market and is now leading the next-generation applied OLED technology," In-Byung Kang, senior VP and Head of the R&D Center at LG Display, said in Thursday's press release. "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."
The possibilities for the new flexible OLED panel are endless, which go beyond large screen television. The wearable market is growing rapidly and LG has already stepped into the arena with its G Watch. It will be an interesting collaboration if LG decides to integrate the new technology into its future wearables.
