Sony demos very bendy flexible OLED screen

Wrap it round a pencil and it'll still show video

Sony has developed an OLED display that's just 80 microns thick, allowing to be bent round anything with a radius of 4mm or more - and to continue to show moving images while this is happening.

The prototype panel is just 4.1in across, with a 432 x 240 resolution and show hues from 24-bit, 16.8m-colour palette. It has a 1000:1 contrast ratio and a brightness of 100cd/m2.

Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com

Sony said the material may one day form the basis for flexible displays and e-paper.

The OLED is made using organic semiconductor compound peri-Xanthenoxanthene (PXX) formed into thin-film transistors. PXX is stable under exposure to oxygen, moisture, light and heat, Sony said, though it didn't state what kind of longevity the OLED panel has.

Current OLEDs eventually fade, particularly in the blue part of the colour gamut.

Indeed, Sony admitted that it needs to improve the reliability and performance of the display, though it claimed that even after 1000 cycles of repeatedly rolling-up and stretching the display, there was no clear degradation in the display's ability to reproduce moving images.

It also said it is working on a way of printing the panels, laying down components from organic semiconductor compounds "dissolved in common solvents". This, it believes, will make for a manufacturing process that is more environmentally friendly than is the production of silicon chips. ®