Arizona State University’s Flexible Display Center (Tempe, AZ; http://flexdisplay.asu.edu/) or FDC and its military and industry partners are claiming the first flexible touchscreen integrated with a flexible active matrix display. The innovative device is entirely glass free.

Art Berman
Insight Media Consultant

The flexible display is composed of a low-temperature amorphous silicon TFT active matrix array coupled with an electrophoretic material called Vizplex and provided by E-Ink Corp. (Cambridge, Ma; www.eink.com). The new, flexible touchscreen uses a plastic substrate called Teonex, which is a polyethylene napthalate (PEN) material supplied by DuPont Teijin Films (www.dupontteijinfilms.com). It is a substitute for the glass substrate used in conventional touchscreens.

The touchscreen capability is enabled by integrating a low power display controller that was co-developed by E-Ink and Epson and demonstrated as part of E Ink’s developer’s kit.

Sri Peruvemba, E-Ink’s Vice President of Marketing commented, "Now we have a partner that can build a flexible touchscreen to match our flexible display." He went on to speculate that this should enable larger sized touchscreens for electronic newspapers, textbooks and other larger format applications. These are applications in which a more durable, flexible touchscreen is desired to allow users to navigate using on-screen icons and, ultimately, roll up the e-paper for carrying and storage.

The new display consists of three distinct elements: the E-Ink Visplex frontplane, the plastic backplane and the touchscreen. The integration of these components is the result of collaboration between the FDC, DuPont Teijin Films and E-Ink.

Inductive technology allows users to touch the screen with a finger or a stylus. In writing mode, information can be sketched on the display in real time. Like E-Ink’s display, the new touchscreen consumes power only when the content is changed.

A video containing a demonstration of the new flexible touchscreen display is available on-line at URL: www.youtube.com/user/FlexibleDisplay.

Designed to be physically rugged, certainly shatterproof, the flexible touchscreen display is also extremely thin compared to one that integrates a traditional glass touchscreen and a conventional LCD. The new paper-thin device is expected to reduce the weight of products that include the display. This feature couples nicely with the display’s low power consumption which, in turn, may eliminate the need for a heavy lithium-ion battery. Such a battery is needed in products based on conventional LCDs such as laptop computers.

The U.S. military will be an early user of the flexible touchscreen technology. Peruvemba predicted, however, that manufacturing costs will drop once consumer applications are tapped. FDC estimates that the technology is as little as 18 months away from commercialization.