In March this year, FlexEnable officially launched its OLCD display technology to the market. Recently, media reports have indicated that FlexEnable is collaborating with display manufacturers and is expected to commence mass production of OLCD in 2021.
In the field of televisions, products currently active in the TV market primarily fall into three panel types: QLED, OLED, and LCD.
LCD is the liquid crystal technology we are most familiar with at present. This technology is highly mature, boasts the highest production capacity at the current stage, and offers lower prices for finished products, making it widely used in mid-to-low-end products. OLED is mostly used in high-end products, and of course, high-end also means high prices.
Currently, LCD technology has matured, ensuring relatively stable production costs and longevity. OLED, on the other hand, boasts excellent color performance, high contrast, and fast response time. However, OLED currently faces insurmountable bottlenecks, namely cost and product lifespan issues.
OLCD can be understood as flexible LCD, which possesses good ductility, is thinner and lighter, and is shatterproof, capable of adapting to various surfaces. The technological advantages of OLCD are precisely reflected in cost and lifespan. OLCD has promising application prospects in the fields of large, medium, and small-sized panels.
Compared to OLCD, dimensional stability currently poses the greatest challenge in the production of flexible OLED screens on plastic substrates.
Excessive dimensional variations make photomask alignment extremely challenging, and also limit the size of transistor designs. At the same time, they are prone to generating internal stress between the interfaces of organic and inorganic material layers, leading to delamination between layers during bending.
This makes the technical difficulty of producing large-sized flexible OLED panels even higher, which is also a major reason why the cost of large-sized OLED panels remains relatively high at present, making widespread use somewhat challenging.
FlexEnable, a company from the UK, has always been dedicated to flexible displays and sensors. OLCD stands as the sole display technology today capable of offering large-sized, low-cost, high-brightness displays for flexible displays.
According to analysis by relevant industry insiders, although OLCD technology is not yet as mature as OLED, it is still worth further exploration in the industry due to its unique characteristics. Due to its lower material cost, it has a greater chance of successful industrialization in the future.
OLCD may become a major competitor of OLED in the future.