The U.S. Army established the Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University in partnership with the State of Arizona with the goal of accelerating the development of flexible display technology to meet the information needs of soldiers
By David Morton, Eric W. Forsythe
The U.S. Army established the Flexible Display Center (FDC) at Arizona State University in partnership with the State of Arizona with the goal of accelerating the development of flexible display technology to meet the emerging information needs of soldiers. The FDC is the first research and development facility in the world to be dedicated exclusively to developing technology and manufacturing processes for flexible displays.
The Center was formed through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Sensor, and Electron Devices Directorate. The cooperative agreement allows the University, Army, and the current 28 industrial partners to work together toward the common goal of developing technologies that will create lightweight, rugged, ultra-low-power, flexible displays and electronics. The program has Army partners to ensure the technology has system-level applications, including Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Command (NSRDEC), Tank-Automotive RDEC, Communications-Electronics RDEC, Armament RDEC, and the Aviation and Missile RDEC.
The scope
Flexible electronics represent a broader application space that includes flexible displays. In general, the flexible platform involves two technology areas: flexible electronics and flexible elements. Flexible electronics can be considered the large-area distribution of electronic circuits, discrete elements, and sensors. Flexible elements include large-area, individual elements such as solar cells, antennas, and solid-state light. The Army is looking at applications that leverage the developments at the Flexible Display Center to enable the broader applications across flexible electronics and elements.
The Flexible Display Center’s technology development focuses on issues associated with fabricating arrays of thin-film transistors (TFTs) on flexible substrates, such as stainless steel or DuPont Teijin polyethylene naphthalate. This challenging piece of large-area microelectronics represents the critical subsystem required to control an array of electro-optical devices to create a digital display. For flexible displays, the TFT arrays are integrated with electro-optic technologies being developed by FDC members. Ultra-low-power, reflective displays can be made using E Ink electrophoretic technology. Alternatively, vibrant, full-color, and full-motion video OLED displays can be built using novel organic materials from partners such as Universal Display Corp. These technologies were chosen because of their compatibility with flexible substrates, their low power advantages, their maturity, and their ability to yield reflective and emissive displays.
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