LG unveiled their newspaper-size flexible e-paper

LG Display has announced the development of a newspaper-size flexible e-paper. Despite the fact the market is becoming overwhelmed with tablets coming from various big companies, the folks from LG won’t give up the fight for a different concept which resembles common newspapers rather than easily-portable touchscreen displays. What makes this e-paper special compared to other ones we’ve seen recently is its size.

The 19-inch wide (250x400mm) flexible e-paper is almost as big as a page of A3 sized newspaper. The product is optimized for an e-newspaper and able to convey the feeling of reading an actual newspaper. Contrary to what you might have expected, because their flexible e-paper is only 0.3 millimeters thin, the e-paper weighs just 130 grams despite its 19-inch size.

LG Display arranged TFT on metal foil rather than glass substrate, allowing the e-paper display to recover its original shape after being bent. The use of a metal foil substrate makes the e-paper both flexible and durable while maintaining display qualities. In particular, LG Display applied GIP (gate-in-panel) technology which integrates the gate driver IC onto the panel. This improves its flexibility by removing driver ICs which are attached to the side of panel and hinder the bending of the display.

CTO and executive VP of LG Display, In Jae Chung said, “Our development of the world’s largest flexible display has opened up a new market in the next-generation display sector of e-paper. As the e-paper market is growing at a rapid pace, LG Display will continue to deliver new value to customers and the market through industry-leading technologies and differentiated products.”

LG Display plans to launch mass production of an 11.5-inch flexible e-paper display in the first half of 2010. With all the hype of newspapers going under, it is nice to know that there is a technology that offers benefit for the publishers as well as for the environmentalists by reducing a big amount of tree cutting meant for newspaper production.