Philips invents technology for paintable displays

Scientists from Philips have fabricated flat panel displays through simple coating techniques similar to painting. Philips claims that this makes displays cheaper, thinner and provides great design freedom.

The displays can be made on a wide variety of substrates, including plastic, enabling for example large, paintable displays on walls or flexible displays integrated in clothing.

Making a complete display by painting a number of layers on any carrier material must seem barely credible to those familiar with the many-step and time-consuming production process currently used in the production of displays. Yet, it has become much closer to reality with a new manufacturing technology for Liquid-Crystal Displays (LCDs).

Traditionally, LCDs are produced by cell-technology, where two glass plates, containing electrodes, switches, colour filters and so on, are connected using spacers, so that a cell of controlled thickness is formed. The cells are filled with liquid crystal in a process called vacuum suction. In the new technology, the complete displays are built from the bottom up on a single substrate by subsequently coating all functional layers on top of each other in processes comparable to painting.