In recent years, the dedication of scientists and engineers in Asia, Europe and the US is to develop the organic materials, plastic substrates, manufacturing processes and necessary hardware. For example, the most active companies in Europe are Plastic Logic and Polymer Vision. They have developed electronic paper displays with the collaboration of E-ink. Also in Asia, Samsung Electronic, LG Philips, Hitachi and Sony are the most leading companies to develop flexible display based on organic thin film transistors.
In order to make flexible displays a reality, various technical aspects have been achieved with great progress. New materials have been developed to make low power consumption front planes based on electrophoretic particles, liquid crystals or OLEDs. Also printable organic semiconductors with some mobility and plastic substrates are now available to make flexible back planes, especially for electronic paper display. But to achieve flexible LCD or OLED, several key technologies such as stable organic materials, heat resistant plastic substrates , and low temperature printable processing of TFT, are still developing.
According to the Display Bank and Display Search, flexible display revenue is expected to start around 2012 and to grow very fast in applications of electronic paper, digital signage and smart cards. However, to finally achieve a commercial breakthrough marketing people have to find business opportunities addressable in a few years. In other words, major brand companies have the inspiration and creativity to see opportunity and commit the necessary business development resources to drive it forward to reality.
In the Business Forum at IMID2007, Display Search and Samsung SDI will present the public display and super large display market and flexible display technology trends and outlook, respectively. In the four day conference program many scientists and engineers will present flexible displays from basic materials to devices. Most recent work on organic semiconductors, dielectric materials, and plastic substrates will be presented in OTFT Material Technology, Materials for Flexible Display & BLU, and Flexible Substrate and Passivation Sessions. Also processing technologies for organic thin film transistor backplanes will be presented in OTFT and Fabrication Process for Flexible Display Sessions.
In sessions of Flexible AMOLED, E-Paper/Flexible LCD, the possibility of flexible devices will be presented from the perspective of the current status of manufacturing technology. Finally, general trends, market and technical issues to enable realization of flexible displays will be covered in Workshop 1.
