Polymers for flexible displays: From material selection to device applications

With digitalization, plenty of information is being exchanged through electronic media, and consumers are demanding high quality, convenient, and portable digital devices. Currently, flat panel displays, such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and plasma display panels (PDPs), satisfy them with regard to quality. Convenience and portability will be realized with flexible displays in the future. Polymers are very promising materials for flexible displays with many advantageous charateristics including transparency, light weight, flexibility, and robustness. They are also some of the least expensive materials and are suitable for mass production via roll-to-roll processes. In this review, we will discuss the kinds of polymers that are used, where and how polymer materials are used and the challenges to overcome in developing flexible displays. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.