Philips unrolls 'paper' display

Flexible approach

By Jan Libbenga • Get more from this author

Posted in Mobile, 2nd March 2005 17:08 GMT

Philips has announced that it will start developing rollable displays in earnest. Until now, the Dutch company only had a working prototype.

Such displays are projected to be the primary solution to demand for larger displays in mobile devices: just pull the screen out of a smart phone or PDA and enjoy a movie. Or read an electronic newspaper that you can roll up and put in your pocket.

The Polymer Vision PV-QML5 Philips says that current process and yield improvements will enable large scale production within two years. The newest 5-inch PV-QML5 rollable display already has a decreased radius of curvature, improved operational and mechanical lifetime and paperlike viewing contrast, all improvements on the world's first rollable display prototype introduced by Philips'Polymer Vision just over a year ago.

A couple of specs for display buffs: The Polymer Vision PV-QML5 is an ultra-thin (100µm) featherweight QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) active-matrix display with a diagonal of 5 inches. When not actively used, the display can be rolled up into a small housing with a radius of curvature of less than 7.5 mm.

With four gray levels, the monochrome display provides paperlike viewing comfort with a high (10:1) contrast ratio for reading-intensive applications. Even in bright daylight, the display is easy to read. The display, Philips claims, consumes an exceptionally low amount of power. ®