Industrial + Specialty Printing

This article explores the influence of components, materials, and deposition techniques on the manufacture of cutting-edge displays.

By Brendan Florez

Printed, flexible electronics is an emerging area that has the potential to redefine manufacturing and the electronics industry itself. Fueled by the development of advanced materials with unique physical and electrical properties, it holds forth the promise of creating electronics that are robust, lightweight, and—in some cases—optically transparent, all using low-cost, high-throughput printing techniques. While the performance of most such materials are nowhere near that of traditional crystalline silicon—high-performance microprocessors would still be made the traditional way—they do hold the potential to open up entirely new areas for electronics where novel form factors, flexibility, robustness, large area, long term, and low cost are required.

One major application for this technology is flexible displays. The benefits of such a technology are obvious. Besides the aesthetic appeal for end consumers, the technology also offers substantial benefits for convenience, robustness, and weight. Think of an e-reader that folds up to fit in your pocket or a display with an unbreakable screen for high-impact environments. The potential for flexible displays is well recognized, and the largest display manufacturers in the world have identified three upcoming technologies they believe will define the next major advances in displays: organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), 3D, and flexibility.

Components
When talking about displays and display technologies, it is important to distinguish between the two major components of a display: the frontplane and the backplane. The frontplane displays the image; the backplane controls which image is displayed (which pixels are on or off). When most people talk about different types of displays, they are typically referring to the frontplane technology. E-paper, OLED, and LCD are all different types of frontplane technologies, and each produces the images that we see in a fundamentally different way. The backplane, however, is a separate construct. Provided the performance requirements of the back and frontplane technologies match, you could swap out frontplane and backplane technologies independently. What’s important to note here is that e-paper and OLED frontplane technologies are already flexible—only the backplane keeps these displays rigid.