LG Displays News, Update: After the flexible e-ink display in 2012 and the slightly elastic OLED screen of the G Flex smartphone last year comes the production of the LG 18-inch OLED display—only this time, the premier company decided to take the flexible feature to a whole new level.

LG announced that they are currently developing two 18-inch OLED displays. One is reported to be so thin and flexible that the device can be rolled into a cylinder with a radius of 1.2 inches. The second one, on the other hand, is said to be highly transparent.

By 2017, the company eyes to combine the two OLED displays to create a 60-inch, UHD screen that is both flexible and transparent—possibly producing the first ever “e-paper” in the world.

But before we get too excited, let’s first talk about what these two prototypes are made of.

The flexible 18-inch OLED display sports a resolution of 1280x810 pixels. Although the image display quality is fairly low, experts and critics are more interested with how the manufacturers were able to use polyimides for the display’s backplane.

It was sheer genius at how LG utilized polyimides. They are flexible plastics that are used in other electronics such as the ribbons that attach a laptop’s screen to the motherboard. Another great thing about this plastic is that it is durable. LG claims that it has achieved “maximum curvature radius” because polyimide is the perfect material to combine flexibility and durability to form a thin backplane.

Meanwhile, the other 18-inch display has an increased transmittance of 30% from the previous transparent displays that only have 10%. This was achieved when the manufacturers reduced the “haze” caused by the display’s electronics by 2%.

LG also claims to have used a certain “transparent pixel design” technology that is not yet revealed to the public.
With the upcoming combination of the two displays, it is certainly exciting to see what kind of technology the 60-inch OLED display will become in 2017. An LG official says that this will help the company to “[lead] the future display market.”