Monday, May 16, 2011

NOW, A FOLDABLE SMARTPHONE SCREEN


Mobile phone manufacturers have unsucessfully tried to make smaller devices with big screens. But the sheer impossibilty of creating seamless screen nixed the idea of folding phone. Till now.

Researchers at Samsung Institute of Technology, South Korea, have a built a prototype of seamless foldable display that opens upto look like that of regular phone.

The display consists of two Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode (AMOLED) panals covered by silicon window that prevents scratches and acts as touch screen, the Daily Mail reports.

When folded down they are separated by  just a gap of  one millimetre. But when open one panel lies completely over the other and appears as seamless.

The researchers tested the foldable display's durability by performing 100,000 folding and unfolding cycles. They said that key to success was controlling the optical properties of material.

"All the materials in foldable window unit (glass and silicon rubber) must have almost the same optical properties and attach to each other strongly without any property change," Samsung's Hongshik Shim said.

This new type of technology have not taken off so far because of high maufacturing costs.

Samsung hopes that this large screen display will be available soon with AMOLED technology. 

No comments:

Post a Comment